


Vocal Vision

by AnarchySong



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Action/Adventure, ongoing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-15 14:05:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4609518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnarchySong/pseuds/AnarchySong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vocaloids. Individuals with amazing abilities and an affinity for music. When hard-headed and strong-willed Miku Hatsune sets out on her own to find a so-called "Legendary Assassin", what she encounters instead may not be exactly what she was expecting. Join Miku, Luka, Gumi, and the rest of the Vocaloid cast as they embark on an adventure of epic proportions!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Teach Me, Legendary Assassin!

I do not own Vocaloid or any of the properties thereof. Miku Hatsune and other characters are the property of their respective owners.

…But the story is totally mine.

*********************************Chapter 1***********************************

There are times in life where one is reminded of the beauty of nature. Truly, it is nothing short of breathtaking to take a walk through the green of the earth and see the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Miku Hatsune was experiencing one such occasion. Surrounded as she was by sunlight, soil, and foliage it was nigh on impossible not to be struck by the absolute tranquility of it all. This forest was a wonder, and the path she currently walked offered an unimpeded panorama of nature's grandeur.

It was wondrous, pristine, glorious. One might even say it was…

"God this is boring" the girl sighed as she trudged yet another tiresome step through the unending trees. "Why am I doing this again?"

"Because" her friend Gumi answered from the other end of the phone call, "you went on for weeks and weeks about how you're going to be the greatest fighter in history and absolutely nothing else would do but being trained by the 'Legendary Assassin' who apparently lives in that forest."

Gumi leaned back in her desk chair, brushing some of her green hair aside. "Protip, he doesn't exist."

"Yes he does. I can feel it." Miku replied, casting a critical eye about the trees around her. "I'm going to find him and he's going to teach me. Then I'm going to-"

"Surpass him and become even greater, cementing your legacy as the most powerful Vocaloid who ever lived." Gumi recited in deadpan. "The plan hasn't changed since the last hundred times you told me."

Alright, so perhaps nature's grandeur wasn't exactly Miku's main focus at the moment. It was understandable. She  _was_ a sixteen year old girl with a lot on her mind.

Though "a lot" may not exactly be the best descriptor. When one imagines a teenage girl with a lot on her mind they might picture… well,  _any_  teenage girl, really. Miku was not just any teenage girl.

Whereas most girls her age might be stressing over boys, makeup, and pop bands, Miku was interested in rather another subject. Namely, fighting.

It may not, of course, have been the most rational or believable thing for a sixteen year old girl to be in a forest looking for a fighting instructor. Then again, Miku didn't find physics to be particularly rational or believable but it seemed to happen anyways. This probably evened it out somehow, she reasoned.

At first glance, the rather unintimidating-looking teenager would not strike one as the fighting type. Rest assured, however, that she would have no problem striking someone if they pissed her off.

Because Miku was indeed the fighting type. She was so much the fighting type that there was nothing else in the world that she would rather do. It was a rather difficult thing to describe. She was fond of explaining it as having the urge to just go out and punch something. Not out of anger, of course, but because it just felt  _right_. Perfectly understandable, really.

For whatever inscrutable reason, however, no one she'd ever asked had really agreed with her that some things just needed to be punched. She couldn't fathom why.

It wasn't really something she could put into words anyways. In her opinion either you were born a fighter or you weren't, and if her fiery disposition and occasionally confrontational personality were any indication, Miku had  _definitely_  been born a fighter.

"Geez, it feels like I've been walking forever" Miku complained. Her feet ached and her back was none too happy with her at the moment.

"Well it  _has_  been two months" Gumi reminded her. "Kudos on that, by the way. I really thought you'd be back inside a week."

"Wow, glad to know my best friend has so much faith in me" Miku replied sarcastically.

"Oh, please don't mistake that for faith. I lost a bet with my dad over that."

"Well at least somebody thinks a little higher of me."

"You're misunderstanding. We both lost. He thought you'd only last three days."

"Whatever happened to family support?" Miku asked.

"They're my family, not yours" said Gumi, with the hint of a smile. "You're just a moocher who lives off my parents good graces."

"Hey, I can't help being an orphan. It's not my fault if my winning personality convinced your folks to take me in. We're practically sisters."

"Heaven forbid" Gumi said with an eye-roll. "If we were sisters I might have to live with you. Oh wait…"

"Keep talking. You know you love sharing a room with me."

"Speak for yourself. I'm doing wonders with all this extra space."

Their friendly bickering aside, the two girls really were like sisters to one another. Miku may have been an orphan, but the fact did little to discourage her. On the contrary, Miku was quite certain that she preferred the life she had gotten.

This was most likely due to the fact that she wasn't an orphan in the sense that she was put up for adoption by parents without the means to raise her so much as she was abandoned in the streets of a small suburban town at a young age.

How young? That was always everyone's question. The opinions varied, but Miku was always partial to 'somewhere younger than a toddler yet older than the classic 'infant on a doorstep' scenario.'

Her exact age notwithstanding, it was remarkable that she had survived at all. Apparently, however, fate had other plans. The old adage "it takes a town to raise a child" may not be so far off where this young lady is concerned. A town is indeed what raised the girl. Found in the streets by a newlywed couple, it sounds at first like a cookie cutter 'happily ever after.'

Miku never had liked fairy tales. After all, how many people could really just find a child on the street and have the means and knowledge to care for it?

Fortunately for the blue-haired youngster word got around about a poor, helpless little girl left to fend for herself, and a most peculiar thing happened. One after another, in a series of unlikely acts of kindness, families and individuals alike stepped forward to offer their support.

Perhaps it started with a few meals here or a bed to sleep in there, but as time went on it seemed less like the the town was shouldering a temporary burden and more like it had adopted a new daughter.

Who were the parents? It hardly mattered. No one asked and no one really cared. Miku could go her whole life without meeting them for all it concerned her. She had all the family she could ever want.

With so many good Samaritans coming together to lend a hand, one would imagine that it would have been downright  _easy_  to do something as simple as raise a child.

Well, it  _would_  have been, if not for one small detail:

Miku is a Vocaloid.

"So what exactly does a 'Legendary Assassin' do?" asked Gumi. "I mean aside from the obvious, of course."

"How should I know?" Miku replied, popping her neck as she walked along. "He's a super powerful Vocaloid, he probably does… super powerful Vocaloid type stuff."

Gumi gave another eye roll. "But how 'super powerful' could he be, really? I mean, I've seen you punch trees over and crush rocks… and destroy personal property, come to think of it." She cast a sad look at a pile of scrap in the corner of her room. "I still can't believe you did that to Scrappy."

"What, you mean that gardening robot thing you tried to build? He was asking for it!"

"Yes, well, I suppose his voice module wasn't exactly supposed to curse that emphatically or in so many colorful ways but he was a work in progress!"

There are many answers to the question: "What is a Vocaloid?" A scientific thesis on the subject (and there have been many) may put it into such words as: "Containing a special protein in their cell membranes, Vocaloids are capable of rapid energy transfer from one cell body to the next. This phenomenon originates from the brain's prefrontal cortex, and quickly spreads to…"

And that was where Miku would have completely lost interest. She never had much use for fancy sciency words like "membrane" and "prefrontal."

The general consensus, in any case, is that Vocaloids are just normal people. They just have a more… complete control over the natural forces present inside themselves. Simply put, everyone has energy within them. It's the same with Vocaloids, they just use it for things other than metabolism or bodily functions, given the proper control, of course. To accomplish this, a Vocaloid uses music.

That's where most people got lost. How can one really describe  _seeing_  a song? It requires the throwing out of any preconceived notions about what 'music' is right at the start, for it is not music in the same sense that a normal person would comprehend. No, for a Vocaloid music is something simpler, more fundamental… more  _primal._

Miku imagined that it was very similar to having a song stuck in your head. It might linger there for minutes, hours, days. Some people believe that's just your brain trying to tell you something. If that was indeed the case, then Vocaloids were the people who were receiving that message.

Many Vocaloids would recommend that a person should think of it as whistling a tune to themselves. A mundane task, provided you can whistle. For a Vocaloid, though, it means nearly unlimited potential. The music they imagine can be used, controlled, and applied. Simply think of a sound, any sound at all, and a Vocaloid can turn it into something amazing, putting the simplest melodies to the greatest of uses.

And that was where Miku usually lost anyone else who was still listening. She couldn't blame them. The process was hardly intuitive after all. As much as science had dissected and studied Vocaloidism, the reasoning behind one of its most fundamental processes remained a complete mystery. While any Vocaloid asked will confirm that all it takes is a song for them to make use of their abilities, one would be hard pressed to find anyone on earth who could tell them  _why_.

Still, in spite of the need for a certain suspension of disbelief, few would argue that it is regardless quite a complicated and beautiful art to master. But words alone cannot do it justice. After all, music is not merely something that is heard, but something that is  _felt._ It can show you things you've never dreamed of, or make you feel things that you could never put into speech. It can bring you to the utmost peak of happiness, or cast you into the deepest well of despair. It can take you places you didn't think were real, or let you do things that you never imagined were possible; quite literally, in a Vocaloid's case.

Yes, in order to fully and truly understand music's grace, beauty, ferocity, and power as a Vocaloid does, one must hear it with a Vocaloid's ears or perhaps, in some cases, see it through their eyes.

As far as grace, beauty, power and whatever else were concerned, however, Miku didn't really care. She knew she could do it, and that was all that mattered to her. She didn't see the need to over think something that felt as natural as walking, which, come to think of it, she had been doing a lot of lately.

"All I'm saying is that just because a few people think there may be a dangerous person living in those woods it isn't a reason to go looking for him" Gumi said, resting her head on the desk in front of her. "Urban legends get started all the time. It doesn't mean you have to take it as gospel."

"Look, obviously there has to be some truth to it" Miku argued back. "How else would so many people know about him?"

"Because people like to blow things out of proportion" Gumi countered. "He's probably not even real, or worse, he is real and is actually just a murderer or something!"

"You worry too much" Miku replied. "How am I supposed to finish my epic journey of self-discovery if I don't find him?"

She had come to realize that self-discovery is rarely kind to one's legs.

When it had become clear to her that there was no one around that could possibly teach her anything she didn't already know, she had set out to find someone who could. She had heard rumors that a powerful Vocaloid known only as "The Legendary Assassin" lived far away in the very woods that she found herself in now.

She had to admit that the whole thing sounded fishy. It was like something out of a movie. The fact was that in real life there were unfortunately few actual assassins, let alone ones that would be known as 'legendary'. However, Miku had nothing else to go on, and no other plan besides. She knew it was a long shot, but she had tried everything else already.

She groaned inwardly as she reminded herself that it really had been  _everything._ The list of her failed endeavors was a long one.

She had tried being a mercenary for hire at the age of twelve. Even she admitted that had been a ridiculous idea. Having never killed anything more than a spider, she was ill-suited for the position, to say the least. Never mind the fact that absolutely no one took her seriously, though they had made no secret of how adorable they all thought it was. That had been the worst part.

There was a period of time where she had attempted work as a private eye. After three weeks had passed and no criminals had been caught, she gave up. It had probably been better in the long run, anyways. She had never gotten the whole hard-boiled detective thing down.

When she was fourteen she had tried to join the army's special ops division. They had turned her away for being too young, telling her to come back when she was older. But waiting until she was eighteen was far too long for Miku and at sixteen years of age she had set out on her own to find herself a teacher worthy of her apprenticeship.

The people back home had begged her not to go. Having stayed with nearly every family on one occasion or another, Miku had become somewhat of a fixture in the community's social structure. Even now, she recalled the tragic look upon Gumi's face when she proposed the idea.

"What!? But why!?" the girl had whined, her ever-present goggles bouncing atop her mop of vibrant green hair. "If you leave I won't have anyone to spend time with! This town will be so boring without you around to stir up trouble!" Funny, Gumi had always told Miku that her penchant for mischief was more of a curse than a blessing, but Miku knew that she wouldn't want to be anywhere else than perpetrating that mischief right alongside her.

Gumi was a Vocaloid too, albeit one with no interest in fighting. Her natural abilities were rather weak, and as such she wasn't exactly combat-ready. Not that she wanted to fight, of course. Gumi was the most peaceful person Miku had ever met.

Fortunately for the green-haired teen there is far more than just one use for a Vocaloid's unique abilities. She used her powers for other things. Gumi was the most technically inclined person around, a prodigy of all things electrical, a verifiable genius.

Miku had lost count of the times Gumi had pulled her along to see some new invention or other. It could be a little scary at times, honestly. The girl would forget to eat if she was particularly engrossed in something, and at least once a week Miku would have to practically drag her away from her workbench.

Still, Miku couldn't deny she had talent. The small bursts of energy Gumi produced may not have been very powerful, but they were  _very_  precise. When she was in a good mood, Miku had seen her weld circuits together with nothing more than her hand, a song, and a spark. It was a common sight to find Gumi sitting in the back room of her parent's house, humming quietly to herself while tinkering away at something.

The two of them had been friends since they were both very little, and the thought of not seeing her for any extended period was very hard to bear. Apparently Gumi had felt the same way, and she had wasted no time in engineering a solution.

"Take this with you" she had said, pressing something vaguely phone-shaped into Miku's hands. "It's a walkie-talkie that can call this one directly" She held up an identical device. "But be careful, it takes a lot of power and the battery is only good for about three hours per charge."

Here she had paused for a moment, chewing her bottom lip. "Also, don't… uh… don't let too many people see you using it. I didn't exactly get permission from any of the companies whose signals I jacked to make it work."

Miku was amazed that Gumi had even been able to make it at all, let alone make it work. If she hadn't known better, she would have assumed it was a piece of trash at first glance. The entire device was an unholy amalgamation of circuit boards, exposed wiring, and a liberal amount of duct tape.

The sound it made was less akin to a ring and more like an angry monkey covered in pots and pans. Every time it rang it was all Miku could do to stop herself from throwing it away.

Still, she couldn't deny the thing worked, and that amazed her to no end. If she'd had a proper facility and the right materials, Miku was reasonably certain that Gumi could create a phone that was better than any of the ones currently on the market. She would make a great engineer some day. That was for sure.

"This thing hurts my face" Miku complained as she held the glorified walkie-talkie slightly away from her cheek. "It's got pokey bits all over it. I'm going to put my eye out one of these days."

"Complain a little more, why don't you?" Gumi huffed. "You try building a working long range communicator without easy access to commercial grade electronics. Do you know how many cell phones I had to tear apart to find everything I needed? No, that isn't a rhetorical question! Twelve of them! I'm pretty sure Jenny from school is still looking for her tablet, too!"

"Meh, Jenny's a jerk" said Miku. "I'm sure her parents will get her another one eventually."

The device had made the trip a bit more bearable, but only just. Miku had been on the road for nearly two months, and had run the battery dry more times than she could count while talking to Gumi.

She had been traveling through towns and cities for most of the way, and she hadn't had any trouble charging the thing at a stray outlet now and again. However, for the past few days she had been traveling through this stupid forest with its stupid trees that didn't have any stupid electricity, so it made sense that she had not been able to recharge in a while. She silently wished that rocks had power cells.

"You know, we've been talking for a while now" said Gumi. "You should probably put the walkie away for a while if you want to have any charge left later. At this rate it's probably going to-"

The device chose that exact moment to shut off.

Gumi sighed, letting her head plunk down on the desktop. "Case in point…"

"Gumi? Hello?" Miku asked, shaking the device a little. When it failed to make any sort of indication that it was still working, Miku shrugged and slid the thing back into her pocket. Oh well, looked like it was going to be a boring couple of days. That was ok. Miku had been on the road this long, a little more couldn't hurt.

Gumi had asked her multiple times why exactly it was taking her so long to find anything. The fact of the matter was that It had only taken her so long to make it as far as she had because she had, in her usual fashion, neglected to formulate anything even remotely resembling a plan before setting out.

Maps? Maps are for chumps. Traveling is an adventure and it should be treated like one. She had gotten her directions from anyone she could ask, which had predictably resulted in occasionally being given the  _wrong_  directions. An entire week went by as she backtracked from just north of Medley's Vale, which was ridiculously far out of her way to the east. Then again, perhaps it hadn't been the directions at all but the fact that she had followed them incorrectly.

Whatever. Not the point. She was here now, and that's what mattered. Even so this forest was beginning to become unbearable. She was getting seriously fed up with the whole "sleeping outside" thing. Miku was willing to classify a few nights under the stars as a "pleasant deviation from the norm", but was becoming genuinely tired of waking up to ants in her sleeping bag.

The fact that there were no formal restrooms in the forest was also very annoying, as well as the lack of restaurants and the general absence of air conditioning. The whole trip was becoming an ordeal, and she was really starting to hope that she would find this mysterious "assassin" soon, if he even existed.

As she walked along, she pondered the possibility that she may never find the Legendary Assassin at all. What if she was just left wandering this forest forever? Frankly, she could not imagine a worse fate.

"Worst. Vacation. Ever." she intoned quietly to no one in particular.

She came to a small stream and decided to rest for a while. Setting her things on the ground nearby, she lay down on the bank of the small body of water.  _Maybe it's not all bad_ , she thought. The weather was nice, and the atmosphere was very peaceful. Being able to have some time to herself was pretty cool too. Out here, she could sing as loud as she wanted to without having to worry about who was going to hear her, or complain that two AM was not an appropriate time for belting out a power ballad.

Not that she had ever really cared who heard her. Being a Vocaloid she had a natural talent for music, and her voice was nothing to scoff at. She had been complimented on it more times than she could count (when it wasn't causing domestic disturbances), and indeed singing was one of her favorite things.

As she lay there thinking she began singing absentmindedly to herself. It wasn't anything special, just a little song with nonsense words. It had a sort of bouncy, polka-like feel to it, and she often found herself humming it absent-mindedly. As she sang she picked up a rock and held it.

With a smile she felt the familiar warmth of the melody spreading through her head and neck, down through her shoulder and into her arm. When it reached her hand she gave it the smallest push and released it from her upturned palm. Slowly, the small stone rose several inches into the air and hovered, as though supported by an invisible spout of water.

Miku loved her powers. She loved the way each note caused the little stone to bob and bounce along with her internal song. The thrill of being able to affect the world around her was a novel experience that she hoped would never lose its charm.

The melody filling her head grew in strength and the volume of her voice rose accordingly, serenading the trees and tranquility surrounding her. It was times like these that made her appreciate the fact that she was alive and free. With no one around, just her voice and her thoughts to occupy her mind, she was at peace.

"That's a lovely voice you have."

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected sound of someone else's voice, however. Her power surged in surprise, and the rock exploded. She flinched as several small pebbles bounced off of her face. Quickly jumping to her feet, she dusted herself off and turned to find the source of the disturbance.

Before her stood a woman who looked to be approaching middle age, but had retained her youth well. Miku immediately made to yell at her, but pulled up short as she fully noticed the woman's appearance.

A mass of long, luxurious, light pink hair reached down past her waist, lending her a definite air of grace. Her hair, however, was not the first thing Miku noticed. Her clothes drew far more attention. Her gaze immediately locked onto the fact that she seemed to be wearing headphones. An odd fashion choice, to be sure, but this particular pair looked incredibly expensive, the band accented with an intricate golden weave. The rest of her outfit was no less eye-catching.

She had on a long black skirt, slit up one side to her hip, and a tight-fitting vest that was simultaneously modest yet form-hugging enough that it left little of her figure to the imagination. Both items were trimmed with gold accents and lent the woman a vaguely foreign aura. The vest was cinched at her breast with an elaborate knot of gold colored ribbon topped with a large jewel.

She wore no sleeves, but had what appeared to be matching gold-trimmed armbands over each bicep. A pair of extensively laced heeled boots reached up to her knees. The whole ensemble was much too fancy considering their surroundings as far as Miku was concerned.

What was more, Miku hadn't heard her coming. Maybe she had been lost in her daydreaming, but it was a rare occurrence that she did not notice someone approaching. She decided to file that away for later and focused instead on her impromptu guest.

"Who are you?" she asked, eyeing the well-dressed new arrival suspiciously. "Why'd you sneak up on me?"

The woman quirked an eyebrow, looking slightly amused. "Sneak up on you? It was impossible not to walk past you, being this close to the path."

Miku looked and sure enough, the woman was standing on the paved path that she herself had been walking along for the better part of that day.

The girl huffed. "Yeah, well, I didn't exactly ask you for a rating on my performance, did I?"

The stranger smiled gently. "I'm sorry, I meant no offense. I was just surprised to see another person here of all places. In my experience this isn't a place where one usually meets new people. What would bring a girl as young as you here all on her lonesome?"

The woman's voice was smooth and well-mannered, with just a hint of some unplaceable accent. Something in her tone suggested sincerity in her words and Miku answered her, albeit still slightly annoyed.

"I'm looking for someone, if you have to know" she said, crossing her arms. "I heard there was a strong Vocaloid living in this forest and I was hoping that maybe he'd teach me" said Miku. "Maybe you've seen him. Everyone calls him the 'Legendary Assassin' but I think that's kind of weird. Why would someone that famous live out in the middle of nowhere where there's no people to impress?"

The woman frowned a bit at this. She ignored Miku's question, instead posing one of her own.

"You're a Vocaloid out on your own looking for an… assassin? Forgive me if I'm… ah… slightly skeptical. You can't be more than fifteen! Aren't you a bit young to be travelling alone?"

"I'm sixteen, actually, and I think I can handle myself just fine" said Miku, a bit ruffled over the fact that this woman clearly didn't think she had much potential. The woman smiled, however.

"Well then, little Vocaloid, how about you walk with me for a while? I just happen to be traveling through these woods on my way to the next town over, and I could use a little company" said the woman.

Her straightforwardness took Miku off guard. Having met her a scant two minutes previously, she had no reason to believe this woman was trustworthy in any way. Then again… Miku looked her over. She doubted she'd be in any danger from someone this… fancy. There were enough gold accents and frou-frou accessories on her person to open a jewelry store.

"My name's Luka, by the way. Luka Megurine" said the woman, extending her hand.

"Miku..." she replied, accepting the handshake awkwardly.

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Miku" Luka said with a smile.

*********************************Vocal Vision*********************************

Forty-five minutes later the two were walking side by side. As it turned out, Luka was actually a very friendly and interesting person. She had a lot to talk about, it seemed. Her strange appearance apparently went hand in hand with a rather unique set of life experiences. Where at first Miku had been a bit tentative about the strange woman that had approached her, she was now genuinely enjoying her company.

"You mentioned earlier that you were looking for someone? A strong Vocaloid, if I recall?" asked Luka, shaking Miku out of her contemplation.

"Oh, yeah, I want to find him and make him train me to be stronger" Miku replied bluntly.

"Make him? Sounds a bit forceful, doesn't it?" said Luka.

"I've been traveling for a while now. I haven't seen my friends, slept in a bed, or listened to any music other than my own voice for almost two months. If I find this guy, if he even exists, he's becoming my teacher" she replied, her voice resolute.

" _If_  you find him?" Luka inquired, cocking her head to the side. "You mean you don't even know where he is? How on earth do you expect to find him when you aren't even sure he lives here to begin with?" Luka asked, clearly at a loss as to why someone would make such a long journey just to find something that might not even exist.

"I'm just going off of what I've heard from other people. Everyone seems to think that he's somewhere in this stupid forest. And if he's not, then I'll look somewhere else" said Miku nonchalantly.

"Yes, well, a modicum of common sense can go a long way you know" said Luka, rolling her eyes at Miku's youthful optimism. "Urban myths can be dreadfully interesting, but rarely true. If you're deadset on a fighting instructor a reputable martial arts academy would be a more sound decision, certainly."

Miku didn't know what a 'modicum' was, but she got the gist of Luka's concern. "Meh. Maybe. But it wouldn't be even close to as awesome." Miku beamed, stars in her eyes. "Can you imagine how cool it would be to be able to tell someone that I was trained by a legendary assassin? I'd be like… I dunno, a celebrity or something!"

"Well I certainly admire your persistence. I can't imagine that there are many sixteen-year-olds who would work this hard to find someone who might not even exist" said Luka, a smile on her lips.

They continued walking and making small talk, when it occurred to Miku that while they had exhausted the conversation behind her own reasoning for being in such an out of the way location, she hadn't inquired as to why Luka happened to be in these woods.

It seemed a little odd that a woman like her would be traveling alone in a potentially dangerous area. Miku knew from her asking around that these woods weren't exactly the safest place. Such a locale was a natural draw for those of a less than reputable persuasion. There could be bandits or highwaymen (were bandits and highwaymen even still a thing that existed? She wasn't sure, but the terms seemed a little outdated to be entirely plausible). Miku would be fine with her powers, probably, but Luka must've had a very important reason for putting herself in such obvious danger.

"Hey Luka, why are  _you_  out here? You said you're heading for the next town over, right?" she asked.

Luke sighed heavily. "To be honest, I wish that our meeting was taking place under happier circumstances. My mother is rather ill, you see, and I'm going to take care of her" she replied, taking on a wistful look. "Ever since father died she's been having more and more trouble doing things on her own."

"Oh… I'm uh… sorry to hear that" said Miku, slightly embarrassed at accidentally broaching such a personal subject.

"Well, life happens I suppose. What can you do?" said Luka with a melancholy smile.

They approached a fork in the road. An aged green metal sign in the middle read:

Kuroki Town, 5 miles

Clonderwell City, 30 miles

"It looks like this is where we part ways" said Luka, holding out her hand to Miku. "A pity. I was very much enjoying your company, young Miss."

"It was nice having someone to talk to, at least for a while" agreed Miku, returning the woman's handshake.

"Farewell, Miku. May fortune see fit to cross our paths again" said Luka as she turned and began to walk towards Kuroki Town, "Good luck finding who you're looking for!"

"Thank you! I hope your mother gets well soon!" Miku yelled back as Luka rounded a corner and disappeared from sight.

Several seconds of silence passed in which Miku stood watching the place where Luka had vanished. She let out a breath. "Man... that lady was weird" she intoned to no one in particular.

Still, Miku was happy she had met her. It was a nice change to have someone in person to talk to while she walked rather than a voice on a walkie. She turned and looked down the other path that led deeper into the woods. Thirty miles was a long way to walk, but she had come this far. She blew a stray lock of hair out of her face.

"Great, more walking. Just what I was hoping for…"

Self discovery  _really_ isn't kind to one's legs.

When it started to get dark, Miku looked up at the evening sky and sighed. It looked like she would have to spend another night in this place. She figured she might as well stop here and set up camp.

She had never really checked to make sure that it was entirely legal to be camping in these woods. There was a very good chance that what she was doing could be considered vagrancy. However, her usual 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' mentality had won out in the end and she had decided to risk it. Who would care anyways?

As she started making preparations for a fire (almost definitely illegal, she reminded herself) she thought about Luka. She couldn't shake the feeling that there had been something off about her. Call her paranoid but she still couldn't help but wonder that there was something she had missed.

She would have liked to get Gumi's opinion on the day's events, but with the walkie out of power it wasn't an option. She sighed. At least she'd be able to charge it the next day when she reached Clonderwell. Eventually she dismissed the line of thought entirely. Luka had been odd, sure, but hardly suspicious.

_Not like I'll be seeing her again anyways._

*********************************Vocal Vision*********************************

It was dark. The fire had long since died down to embers and there was no noise, save for Miku's quiet breathing. She had chosen the most suitable spot she could find near the main path to set up camp. She didn't much like the idea of trekking further into the untamed foliage. Besides, who was going to come along a dark forest path in the middle of the night?

As it turned out, Murphy's law had something to say about that.

It should have come as no surprise when she was rudely awoken by hands roughly shaking her and a knife at her throat. Miku had never much cared for irony but the fact that she had just that day wondered if highwaymen still existed was not lost even on her. She sighed.

There were five large men standing around her in a semicircle, one of which was directly in front of her, holding a large and particularly dangerous looking blade in his meaty fist. Oh joy.

She was embarrassed more than anything. One light-footed woman managing to sneak up on her while she was daydreaming was one thing, but five large men? This was just too much.

It was at this point that Miku became fully awake and noticed a sixth man… who currently had her arms pinned behind her back. Wow, she was really batting a thousand today.

It occurred to her that with her arms being held, fighting back would be very difficult, Vocaloid powers or no. This brought up an interesting point: She was in serious trouble, a fact which didn't particularly bother her so much as annoy her and, if she made it through this, she would never admit to anyone.

"Well what do we have here?" said the man with the knife, "A pretty little girl all alone in the woods? Didn't your parents teach you that it's dangerous to go wandering off by yourself at night?"

Though she was in a great deal of danger, Miku was not the kind of person to abide being looked down upon. It should therefore come as no surprise that she chose that moment to do something incredibly stupid.

"No… actually they didn't… My parents abandoned me when I was a child…" she said, heaving a theatrical sigh. Some of the men actually deflated slightly at that. "I never had anyone to love me. When you woke me up just now, it was just from yet another nightmare of being alone. I guess I deserve this, in the end. I must be worthless, to be captured by such an incompetent band of fools."

It took a moment for the men to realize exactly what she had just said. Several looked momentarily confused.

"I guess this is the end for me. Who would have thought I'd die at the hands of such ugly people?" she continued, her tone slowly slipping from one of depression to something more derisive.

"What was that!?" yelled the man with the knife, his face reddening.

"Oh sorry, I should have spoken up. I was just saying how fat and stupid you all look!" she yelled back, all pretense lost.

"Looks like this little one likes to run her mouth!" the man said to others, "What do you think we should do with her?"

"Teach her some manners!" shouted one of the other men, brandishing a large club. Miku scoffed. What a cliché. He didn't even have the decency to threaten someone with a gun like a real modern criminal. Seriously, what self-respecting mugger even owned a club in this day and age?

"Sounds good to me!" said the first man.

With that he took two steps forward and slapped Miku hard across the face. Her eyes watered from the pain, but she didn't make a sound. Slowly, menacingly, she turned her gaze back to face the man who had slapped her, eyes smoldering.

The man grabbed her face in one hand and leaned in close. Ugh, his breath even smelled terrible. Seriously, bad guys had no class nowadays.

"How's that Missy? Ready to be a little more respectful of your elders?" he asked, his face inches away from hers.

"Respect this, asshole!" Miku bit the hand holding her face. The man reeled away, clutching his finger, which was now bleeding rather heavily. The man holding her, surprised at her actions, and looking a bit concerned for his friend, loosened his grip just the tiniest bit. Miku smiled.

In an instant, a powerful melody filled her head and a tingle of energy infused every inch of her body. Using the bit of leverage she had been afforded, she maneuvered her hand into a fist and sent every bit of power she could muster drilling straight into the man's stomach.

He fell to his knees in pain, the wind knocked out of him. Wasting no time Miku spun around and delivered a swift kick to the side of the man's head before rounding on his buddies, who all looked appropriately shocked. However, it only took them a moment to get over their initial surprise, and they began advancing on Miku menacingly, with weapons in hand.

"Oy! You've got some nerve girl! You just made this a whole lot worse for yourself! We just wanted your money but now it looks like we'll have to beat some sense into ya'!" yelled one of the men.

Miku's eye twitched. Taking her money was second on her list of things that made her mad. How unfortunate for this man that he hadn't thought first to just ask her for it. She still would have said no, of course, but it would have saved him and his buddies the savage beating she was now about to deliver.

"I am going to enjoy this WAY more than I should!" she shouted, hands beginning to glow.

The man with the bleeding finger rushed at her with his knife. She sidestepped the blade easily and tripped the man, landing a heavy fist into his gut as he fell. He went down hard, wheezing.

Pointing her glowing hands at the man with the club she fired a powerful blast of energy directly into his midsection. It bowled him over completely and the others started backing away, clearly scared and confused by the fact that a teenage girl was somehow knocking them around. Miku glared as she advanced menacingly.

But as she stepped forward, she felt a hand grasp her ankle. A hard pull and a swift descent and she was on her face. With a mental groan she realized that she had underestimated the man who had been holding her. That boot to the head should have left him out cold, but it seemed he was made of slightly tougher stuff than she had thought.

There was no doubt in her mind now that she was going to have to work on being more conscious of her surroundings. Well, provided that she got out of this alive, that is.

The man with the knife was on top of her in a flash, pinning her down and panting as he recovered from his earlier tumble.

"That really hurt, kid" breathed the man, his mouth next to her ear, "Let's see how you like it."

With a snarl he grabbed a handful of Miku's hair and viciously drove her face into the ground. Sparks of pain danced across her vision as a bruise blossomed across her cheek and her nose began to bleed.

This was definitely not going as she had planned. In her arrogance Miku had neglected to consider that perhaps a full grown man might not take as much punishment from a teenager's foot as she had intended.

She didn't have time to dwell on the matter as the man pulled her head back and slammed her face into the ground a second time. Miku yelled in pain, her nose making a cracking noise as blood began to pour from it. The man raised her head a third time, grinning like a fool.

Several things happened very quickly.

Just as the man made to drive her face home for a third time, Miku felt a sudden rush of air as a great force lifted the man completely off of her and blew him into a nearby tree. He slammed into the truck face first. The sound of splintering bark rent the air. Miku twisted around from her position on the forest floor and was struck speechless by the sight that greeted her.

Luka stood undaunted in the midst of the hulking men in a fighting stance, her hands and eyes glowing brightly with barely contained energy. She smirked.

Three of the men rushed her, swinging their weapons with murderous intent, clearly having had enough. A teenager had tripped up their boss and now this woman was trying to make fools out of them. Unfortunately for them, they  _were_  fools and Luka appeared to be in no mood to tolerate their shenanigans.

As they reached her, Luka bent her knees and vaulted into the air, jumping clean over all three. Behind them, she loosed three bursts of energy from her hands in quick succession, knocking the men on their faces. The man with the club attempted to bludgeon her while her back was turned. Without even looking behind her she caught the weapon as it came down, gripping the handle tightly.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you about walking through the forest at night?"

Alarmed, the man tried to pull the weapon back, but found that he couldn't so much as budge it from Luka's iron grip. A devilish grin spread across her features and she chuckled darkly.

"It's dangerous."

She then spun around impossibly fast and hugged the man around his midsection. Her energy flared as she bent her legs and jumped backwards, taking the man with her. In the air she leaned back and threw him behind her, suplexing him on top of his three cohorts. Catching herself on one hand, she pirouetted gracefully before flipping back onto her feet.

Nonchalantly tossing her hair out of her face, she looked down at the pitiful pile of bodies that constituted the remains of her erstwhile opponents.

"Now are you gentlemen going to leave or do I have to get serious?" she cracked her knuckles and her eyes glowed a bright pink as her energy flared up around her once again.

The men may have been fools, but they could take a hint. Grabbing their boss and hoisting him between two of them, they turned tail and ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Needless to say, it would be a considerable amount of time before they attempted to rob anyone.

As quickly as it had appeared, Luka's intimidation factor vanished as soon as the men were gone. She spun around and rushed over to Miku, who was sitting up but still bleeding heavily from her nose.

"Are you alright?" Luka asked, worry etched all over her face as she examined Miku's injuries.

Miku said nothing, opting instead to let her jaw hang slack and her eyes bug out in amazement at what she had just witnessed. "Wha... how did you... but they were..."

"Wow, you're pretty banged up, aren't you?" said Luka, ignoring Miku's astonishment. "I suppose I could try to fix it… but I have to warn you, I haven't done this in a while and I was always more the type to  _cause_  injuries rather than fix them".

Having said that, Luka placed her hand over Miku's face and closed her eyes. Her hand glowed briefly and Miku felt a sharp, quick pain followed by a muffled snap. She yelped and her hand leapt instantly to her face.

"OUCH! Hey what gives!? What did you do… to…?" she trailed off as she felt her nose. It didn't hurt at all anymore. In fact, it felt perfectly normal. The bleeding had stopped too. Whatever Luka had done, it had healed her.

"You… fixed my nose…?" asked Miku, dumbfounded.

"Vocal energy can be used for a lot more than fighting, you know. It's a shame that more Vocaloids don't practice medicine, really" she replied, "But I digress…"

With that Luka walked a few paces away from Miku, turned around and yelled:

"WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING? Trying to take on six fully grown men by yourself!? That's insane!  _Oniigasen a napermo,_ You're lucky you weren't killed! If I hadn't been passing by, what would have happened to you?"

Under different circumstances, Miku probably would have stopped to wonder what the hell a  _napermo_  was, but she really couldn't be bothered just then.

"I… you… what… I don't even…" Miku sputtered, entirely at a loss for words. She took a moment to compose herself and then said: "I'm sorry, but what the hell just happened!? I thought you were going to see your sick mother and then you just show up and go all ninja on those creeps!"

"Don't try to change the subject" said Luka, looking stern.

"Change the subject!?" said Miku, gesturing wildly behind her. "You just suplexed that guy! And you were glowing!  _Glowing!_  Who cares what I was thinking? You're like some kind of super hero, or... or secret agent or something!" Miku stopped a moment, clearly following a train of thought. "Like an assassin..."

And then it dawned on her.

Luka didn't like the look of burgeoning comprehension slowly spreading over Miku's face.

"Oh my God!  _You're_  the 'Legendary Assassin'!?"

To say that Luka looked unhappy about Miku's revelation would have been an understatement. The cat was out of the bag, it seemed. Perhaps she should have taken a bit more subtle approach to dealing with those men than her preferred strategy of overwhelming force.

In hindsight, however, the glowing probably  _had_ been a little much.

She had to hand it to Miku though. It had been quite a few years since anyone had realized who she was. Not that she had made it particularly difficult for her to figure out, of course, but still...

It really didn't matter. This girl was undoubtedly the same as everyone else, asking her for her autograph, or begging for a demonstration, or, God forbid, asking Luka to  _teach_  her. Wait a second... come to think of it, hadn't Miku been going on about something earlier? Something about… teaching...

Luka was barely able to suppress the urge to facepalm.

_Ok, no big deal_  Luka thought to herself, attempting to stay calm.  _I'll just… play up my reputation a bit, yeah. Maybe sign an autograph and swear her to secrecy. No need to panic._

"You have a discerning eye! I am indeed the one that everyone calls the 'Legendary Assassin'" she said, her voice booming, "I have defeated countless opponents and my powers are unmatched anywhere in the world! Those who seek to challenge me are swiftly dispatched without mercy or remorse!"

_Nothing works like a good intimidation factor_ , thought Luka, satisfied that this girl would undoubtedly be speechless with awe.

To put it simply, her little declaration did not have the intended effect (and sounded downright silly in retrospect). Miku's eyes grew round and her face lit up.

"YES! I finally found you!" she yelled, dramatically dropping to one knee. "I, Miku Hatsune, humbly request the opportunity to become your apprentice. Please teach me to be a fighter."

Oh no. No no no. It was all coming back. ALL of it. It was people like this that had contributed to her decision to live a life of seclusion in the first place. The publicity was hell. There was hardly a moment when there wasn't some misguided fan that thought they could become a legend too. This was rapidly escalating out of control. She needed to get a grasp on the situation and she needed to do it fast.

Later, she would look back and realize what a terrible course of action her next few decisions had been.

She could have said no. She could have told Miku that she didn't take apprentices. She could have tried to bluff her way out of it. Anything else would probably have been a better idea.

"Foolish girl! You think that someone as weak as you is qualified to be the apprentice of the Legendary Assassin? I only take on the strongest of Vocaloids to be my students! Someone such as you could never hope to…"

There was a loud crash as a nearby tree fell over. The remaining splinters smoked slightly from Miku's overly enthusiastic blast of energy.

"How's that for power? Those guys were just a fluke, I swear! I just got distracted is all!" said Miku, still with the same hopeful demeanor she'd had moments ago.

Well that was certainly... impressive. It wasn't every day you met a sixteen year old girl that could blow down trees with her hands. Still, it didn't mean anything. She could still feasibly just tell this girl that the answer was-

"You think that's enough to qualify you to be my apprentice? I could fell this entire forest in a matter of minutes! A single tree is nothing!" Oh God, she kept opening her mouth and all that would come out was stupidity!

Almost as if karma was mocking her, there were several more crashing sounds as eight additional trees fell down.

"As I was saying, this entire forest would be no problem at all for me to…"

Miku jumped up in the air and then punched the ground when she landed. A sizeable crater formed beneath her fist, sending large cracks snaking outwards.

"That's, impressive but…"

A log flew over Luka's head and smashed into a clump of bushes on the other side of the road.

"I didn't mean…"

A nearby boulder was reduced to rubble.

"That's not…"

A few birds squawked indignantly as the tree they were perching in was entirely uprooted.

"Ok! Enough! You've made your point!" shouted Luka.

Miku stopped terrorizing the local environment and faced Luka, breathing heavily. Ok then, it was obvious that she couldn't say this girl didn't have enough raw strength. Alright, a different approach then. Maybe some force was necessary.

"Of course, pure strength can only take you so far. A true warrior must be agile as well. Let's see if you can dodge… this!"

Inside Luka was repeatedly punching herself for even thinking this was a good idea. She was fairly certain that she had never looked this stupid in her life.

Nevertheless she still sent a blast of energy straight at Miku. Nothing too strong, she didn't want to really hurt her after all, just scare her a bit.

It therefore came as quite a shock when Miku easily sidestepped the blast.

"Agile my ass! If you're going to do that you have to at least  _try_  to hit me!" Miku said with a roll of her eyes. "I saw that coming from a mile away!"

She had actually  _dodged_ it? Oh come on! What was the deal today!? She must be slipping. At what point had she gotten so out of practice that a teenage girl could avoid her?

Wait…  _seen_   _it coming_? Did she just say that she had  _seen_  the blast coming? Impossible! There was no way that someone so young could possess the ability to see uncondensed vocal energy. It took years of training and discipline, and this girl was obviously lacking a little in the discipline department.

Luka frowned. She herself had taken fifteen years before she could do it properly.

"Are you meaning to tell me that you actually  _saw_  that?" asked Luka, astounded, "Are you telling me that you, a sixteen year old girl with no formal Vocaloid training, are able to use perfect vocal vision?"

"Vocal what-now? What's that?" replied Miku, "If you mean can I see you glowing, then yeah, can't everyone? I mean, it's so bright and pink. Kinda hard to look at, actually."

So she didn't even know the extent of her own abilities… It sounded to Luka like this seemingly ordinary girl, or as ordinary as the situation permitted, possessed perfect vocal vision. She could even tell that Luka's own aura was colored pink. Unbelievable. Luka had never witnessed natural talent like this. It was remarkable.

Miku didn't even seem to know what vocal vision was, let alone that it was anything special. If that was the case, then this girl had grown up with the ability to know a person's vocal energy just by looking at them. For her, it was as normal to see vocal auras as it was for a regular person not to see them.

Furthermore, it also looked like Miku didn't even have to put forth any conscious effort to do it, completely independent of the usual technique. She could just take a glance at someone and instantly know the level of their power as long as they weren't consciously hiding it

But really, that was neither here nor there. There weren't many Vocaloids of that caliber anywhere. All that aside, Luka was beginning to tlhink that maybe there was more to this girl than was readily apparent. Just maybe, she wasn't just another wannabe. Perhaps there was a slight chance that she could actually become a legend herself one day… or not. Best not to get carried away with her thoughts.

"So let me see if I understand this" said Luka, "You are able to see my vocal energy, right?"

"Yeah…. Didn't I just say that?" Miku replied, a bit confused.

"Interesting… what about now?" said Luka. She suppressed her energy, lowering her output until it was almost non-existent.

"Whoa! Wait, what did you just do? That's what you were doing when we met, isn't it? That's why I didn't notice you!" said MIku excitedly, "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"I don't recall saying that I was going to teach you anything" said Luka, "…however, in light of your abilities, I must admit that you are more qualified than I thought you were…"

Luka thought hard for a moment. Was she actually considering this?  _Could_ she actually be considering this? This was exactly what she hated about publicity. Could she really be letting herself embrace one of the things that had driven her to a life of solitude in the first place?

More than that, she wondered, could she really take on an apprentice? What authority did she have to teach someone? She had never done it before. What was to say that she would even be good at it? Granted, when it came to knowledge of Vocaloid ability, there were few with more practical experience than her, if any. Still...

"Hey, anybody home?" said Miku, looking at Luka inquisitively. Absorbed as she was in her musings, she had nearly forgotten that Miku was still awaiting an answer.

"Oh, sorry, yes, well… " said Luka, once again at a loss for words. She composed herself, almost not able to believe what she was about to do.

"I concede" she said, taking on a serious tone, "You may have what it takes to be my apprentice."

Miku's eyes lit up and grew as big as dinner plates. Luka noticed this and quickly continued.

"BUT! I'm still not completely convinced!" she said, giving Miku a hard stare, "There are a few more tests I want to put you through before I make my final decision. If you can pass them to my standards, then..." she sighed, nearly having to force the words out. "Then I'll make you my apprentice. If you think you're up for it, then pick up your things and follow me."

Unfortunately for Miku, Luka was nowhere near sold on the idea of being her teacher. Sure, this girl had amazing talent, but Luka had seen talent before, and that didn't make the outcome any different. Just because she was making the worst decisions in history today didn't mean she had to let it end with this girl as her student.

After all, she assured herself, in all likelihood she was just another hopeful that didn't have what it took. Luka didn't even see herself as the kind of person that had the right to teach someone. But since she had gone and spoken without thinking, she was going to have to scramble for a way out.

Looking back, Luka would remember how strange the whole situation seemed. What had possessed her to have so much interest in this one girl? She didn't really know. All she knew at the time was that she had gotten herself into quite a mess…

…

Oh, and that she had better think up some tests before they got back to her house.

*********************************Vocal Vision***********************************


	2. Strength! Speed! ...What?

I do not own Vocaloid or any of the properties thereof. Miku Hatsune and other characters are the property of their respective owners.

…But the story is totally mine.

*********************************Chapter 2*********************************

Gumi Megpoid was worried.

But that was nothing new. She was a worrywart. She worried about a lot of things. Usually it was something petty, like worrying about what to make for dinner or how she was going to get ahold of a new part for her scooter. This was different, though. This time it was… well, at least it could be… serious.

She hadn't heard from Miku in far too long. The last time they'd spoken Miku had been traversing through the "Assassin's Forest", thusly named due to the rumors that the so-called 'Legendary Assassin' lived there.

Gumi wasn't sure where exactly it placed, but 'assassin' was rapidly climbing the ladder of her least favorite words, currently beating out 'teat' and being just behind 'mangrove'.

It was Miku's fault. The girl had regaled her endlessly with the tales she had supposedly heard of the assassin's amazing abilities and flawless skill. Personally Gumi thought the whole thing sounded like a load of rubbish.

Really, what were the odds that an incredibly dangerous former assassin had suddenly decided to up and leave their no doubt glamorous and exciting lifestyle for complete anonymity secluded in a forest? It was the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a television show, not real life. In her opinion the whole thing seemed a little too far-fetched to be true.

Miku had informed her that due to the low battery life of the walkie she probably wouldn't be able to contact her for several days at least since, as she had complained several times, there was nowhere to charge a phone in a forest.

Gumi assumed they would be out of contact for a while, but four days? Wasn't that just a little  _too_  long? It couldn't be that something terrible had happened to her, could it?

Her mind suddenly filled, unbidden, with images of Miku in all manner of awful situations. What if she was in trouble somehow? What if she had fallen off a cliff and broken her leg and now lay there, trapped, with no one to help her? Good God! What was she doing just sitting here? She had to save her!

As if sensing the teen's rapidly escalating mental panic, the scrap metal phone on the desk in front of her started to ring...

...Or at least clang loudly in a vain attempt to sound like it was ringing. It got her attention, at least.

Scrambling to pick it up, Gumi only succeeded in accidentally swatting it away from her, knocking it off into the space behind her desk. It clattered against the wall as it fell, still making a most terrible noise. She practically knocked over the chair she had been sitting in as she dove beneath the desk to get to the device, as well as sending a couple of her little projects all over the place in the process.

"Hello? Hello? Miku are you- OW!" she yelled, smacking her head against the underside of the desk as she sat up.

"Gumi! Is that you?" it was Miku. She was okay! And she sounded... excited?

"Who else would it be?" she answered sarcastically. "Do you realize how long it's been since you called? You had me worried sick!"

Miku wasn't listening.

"Guess what! I found the Legendary Assassin! And you know what else? He's a she! And you know what  _else_  else? She agreed to be my teacher!"

"I really worry about you, you know? You really need to think about how other people feel when you do things like..." she paused, Miku's words finally registering. "Wait... really? You mean there's legitimately someone living in that forest that calls themselves a legendary assassin?"

"Yep!" Miku confirmed happily. Gumi could practically hear her bobbing her head up and down in glee.

The teen genius was speechless. Sure, she'd supported Miku in her decision to search for a teacher. She was her best friend, after all. Never once, however, had she actually considered that Miku might  _actually find something._  The idea was absurd!

"Thats... uhm... uh... unexpected" she offered lamely. Really there were no words.

"Yeah! I know! You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get her to say yes. It wasn't easy. I don't think that anyone that isn't me could have done it" said Miku, recalling the last several days. "I can finally use my left arm again though!"

"You can finally  _what_?" Gumi gasped, praying she had misheard.

"It was just an accident, don't worry about it!" said Miku dismissively. "Anyways, let me tell you about what happened when I got here! You won't believe it!  _After_  the bandits attacked me, we went-"

And she was off.

"Miku wait, there's something important that I have to…" Gumi began, but it was too late. Miku had already launched into a full explanation of everything that had happened since Luka had rescued her.

The green-haired girl sighed. Knowing her best friend, there was little hope of stopping her now that she had started. With no other recourse Gumi settled in for what was sure to be a most riveting tale…

*******************************Three Days Earlier********************************

Miku awoke on something soft for the first time in a long while. She didn't immediately remember where she was, but was content to bask in the gloriousness of waking up on something other than a dirt mattress.

She didn't want to ever move away from that wonderful, blissful sensation, but as her mind slowly began to shake off the shackles of drowsiness and recall the previous day's events, simply laying in bed quickly began to seem a lot less interesting.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she sat slowly upright and assessed her unfamiliar surroundings. She remembered that she had followed Luka back to her house (how something so big as a house had been constructed in the middle of the forest without anyone noticing was beyond her) and had crashed almost immediately in the guest bedroom that Luka had pointed her to.

A glance towards the corner of the room revealed her clothes, folded, resting atop a small stool. Looking down at herself, she observed that she was wearing a pair of pink pajamas that were far too large for her.  _They must be Luka's_ she thought to herself,  _is everything she owns pink?_  She must have been pretty tired; she didn't even remember changing into them.

Investigating further, she appeared to be in a small bedroom with sparse furnishings, though what little furniture there was lent it a decidedly strange atmosphere. There was a vanity crafted out of some kind of strange green wood and a dresser made of the same. On the wall hung some shelves with small figurines on them. All of them were animals, painstakingly detailed and looking as though they had been crafted by hand in some distant foreign country.

On top of the dresser sat a small framed picture of Luka (looking more than a few years younger, Miku noted) holding an enormous fish while standing on the deck of a rather large fishing vessel. She was smiling proudly and displaying her catch to the camera. Miku briefly wondered how many places Luka had been in her life. Judging from the items in this room alone, it seemed like a lot. Where had she traveled to? Had she been all over the world? She would have to ask her later.

Before the thought could really take hold, however, Miku caught a positively enchanting smell coming from elsewhere in the house. Influenced by the growing pit in her stomach, she quickly decided that further investigation was in order.

After getting dressed (she noticed that her clothes had been washed) she exited the room into a long hallway. Upon reaching the end, she found what must be the living room. It was an average affair. Couches, chairs, a few bookshelves, television, computer… wait… television?  _Computer_? In the middle of the forest!? How the hell did that work? Then again… how did Luka have a secret house in the first place?

Deciding it wasn't important enough to worry about at the moment, Miku hung a right towards what she assumed was the kitchen, if the sounds and smells were any indication.

The sight that met her eyes upon entering the room made it difficult not to laugh. Luka, wearing an apron (pink, obviously), was holding a frying pan and dancing exuberantly to the music presumably playing through her headphones. Apparently, the ornate earpieces were part of her ensemble at all hours of the day… interesting.

The overpowering smell turned out to be bacon, several strips sizzling in the pan. Miku, having not had hand-cooked food in a considerable length of time, was understandably drawn to them.

As one of her more intense dance steps brought her into a spin, Luka finally took notice of the teenager practically salivating in the hallway. She paused mid-turn, posed awkwardly on one leg.

"Oh! You're awake!" she said. "Did you… uh… sleep well?"

"Are you kidding?" Miku replied. "I've been on the ground for like… a month, I think? I wouldn't have cared if I'd had to sleep on the floor."

"Good to hear" said Luka, turning back around, "I've come up with a suitable… uhh… test for you to do, I think. It's a bit short notice, so it won't be as er… intense as what I would normally give, but I think it will suffice." There was, of course, no such thing as what she would 'normally give,' but such an admission was at this point out of the question.

Luka carried the frying pan over to a large dining table and shoveled the bacon onto a plate. The rest of the table was already covered with assorted breakfast foods, and was conveniently set for two.

In what was quickly becoming a theme that morning Miku wondered how Luka could afford to buy that much food, living out in the middle of nowhere. Again, the prospect of quelling the beast rising in her belly put those thoughts aside.

As she sat down, Miku was in awe. She hadn't had a real meal in ages, and she found herself nearly drooling as she looked over the array. Wait, check that, she  _was_  drooling. Without waiting for Luka's approval she dove straight in.

Luka noted, looking both simultaneously disgusted and impressed, that the girl at her table appeared to have basically no proper manners when it came to eating. It bordered on vicious, the way Miku tore into her food. The spectacle reminded her more of some wild animal attacking a potential meal rather than the polite breakfast she had assumed it would be.

As they ate, though Luka thought that 'ate' was a less accurate descriptor than 'brutalized' in Miku's case, they discussed many things, but Luka was strangely silent on just what she had in store for the girl's "test", and refused to divulge the secret despite any of Miku's prodding.

The end of the meal saw Miku's half of the table resembling a battlefield. Luka shuddered. She would have sworn that she saw blood, had a bottle of ketchup not been present, though given the spectacle she had just witnessed it wouldn't have surprised her anyways.

After they were finished, Luka picked up the dishes, or rather the remains, and placed them in the sink. She would deal with them later.

With a sigh she turned to face the eager young girl that was eyeing her expectantly now that the distraction provided by food was absent. "Very well" she said, attempting to hide the reluctance in her tone. "I suppose it's time to begin. Go wait outside and I will join you once I've finished my… uh… preparations."

She groaned inwardly, the surrealism of the situation not lost on her. It was difficult to sound convincing when she had only come up with any of the supposed "tests" the previous night. Fortunately, perception didn't seem to be this girl's strong suit, a fact which Luka was grateful for.

Miku, however, couldn't have been happier. She couldn't wait for her trials to begin, and it was with a spring in her step that she walked outside to wait for her (hopefully) future mentor to join her.

As she passed the threshold of the door and wandered out into the yard, a splash of color caught her eye and she turned to look back at the house.

In the darkness of their arrival during the previous evening she had been unable to make out anything noticeable about the exterior of the building. Now, however, the house stood in full view in the light of day, and it was a strange sight.

It stood two stories tall with one side wall entirely dominated by an enormous stone water wheel that currently stood motionless in the absence of any sort of body of water to power it.

Looking around, Miku couldn't see any indication that there had  _ever_  been a river here, let alone now. In any case the point was hardly worth considering in light of the fact that no one in their right mind would construct a water wheel out of stone anyways. It looked enormously heavy and it was a wonder in itself that the house was able to support the thing.

As out of place as the wheel was, however, it was not what had caught Miku's attention. Regardless of what they may have been supporting the walls were eye-catching in their own right.

The entire house was covered from foundation to roof in drawings of every sort of creature imaginable, as well as few that Miku was quite sure she had never even dreamed of. Animals of all shapes and sizes posed in a massive collage of vibrant color.

Most noticeable was the entire front wall of the house which was dominated by a gigantic tiger, its jaws gaping as it let out a proud roar. Around the side of the house stood a bear, rearing up on its hind legs as a menagerie of other, smaller creatures played over the rest of the wall in a portrait of nature.

Miku wondered silently what Luka's obsession with animals was about. Not only these paintings, but everywhere inside the house as well was filled with figurines and drawings of every type of wildlife.

She walked back around to examine the stone wheel in closer detail, and a glint of metal caught her eye. Moving nearer she discovered… actually, what was that thing? Some kind of… metal box?

"I see you found the generator" came Luka's voice from behind her.

"Gener… ator?" replied Miku.

"Certainly" said Luka, stepping up beside her. "How do you suppose I managed to cook breakfast? Take a shower? Have lights?" She lightly patted the device. "This provides me with all the electricity I need."

Miku may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but even she had paid enough attention in school to know that you couldn't just hook something up to a box and have it produce energy forever.

"So it just… makes it?" she asked, understandably skeptical.

"Of course it doesn't silly. That's what the wheel is for!" said Luka, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right. So the big water wheel with no water powers the house…" said Miku, raising an eyebrow.

"Water wheel?" said Luka, "Who ever said anything about water?"

With that Luka walked up to the giant wheel, pulled up her sleeves, and grabbed hold of it. Surely she couldn't be intending to turn the thing manually? That was even less plausible than the infinite power box.

"Well I just sorta assumed…" said Miku, trailing off.

"You should never assume things…" said Luka, with a slight smirk. Miku's eyes saw a bright pink glow flare up around her.

Then, with one powerful motion, Luka spun the wheel.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" yelled Miku, watching as the wheel spun so fast that it was a wonder it didn't come spinning right off the wall it was attached to.

An audible hum filled the air as the generator recieved a new flow of power. The lights in the house flickered slightly.

Luka turned around and looked at Miku. "That should last for a few days" she said with a smile.

"H-H-How did you do that?" asked Miku. It wasn't possible. The sheer amount of strength someone would need to turn something that heavy...

"I am very strong" Luka replied cooly.

"Well, yeah… I kind of figured, but that wheel must weigh…"

"Nearly three tons?" Luka interrupted with another small smirk. "You would be correct."

Miku was in awe. Not even in her wildest imagination did she ever think that things like this were possible. She had always known that there were strong Vocaloids out there, but this? Miku had read comic books where the heroes couldn't do that.

"Anyways, let's get down to business" said Luka. She noticed how much easier it was to seem like she knew what she was doing when her audience was speechless.

"I have three tests for you. In order to establish what your basic abilities are at the present time, I have devised a test for speed, a test for strength, and one that you will only find out about if you make it through the first two."

And it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination that this girl couldn't make it through the first two, Luka told herself.

"Ok, so what do I-" Miku began, but Luka cut her off.

"Ah ah ah. The first test is about speed and I'm sure that you're going to want as much time as you can get. Save your questions for later" said Luka. "In the interest of testing your speed, I have a very straightforward task for you to complete. You'll recall that when you first entered this forest you passed a large sign at the entrance. I have placed a small red rock on top of this sign. I want you to bring it to me."

Miku sighed. And here she was thinking that she wouldn't have to spend any more nights shaking twigs and bugs out of her clothes. The entrance must have been thirty miles away. Another night in nature's bounty was imminent, it seemed.

_Wait a second…_  a thought occurred to her.

"When the hell did you have time to put a rock on top of that?" asked Miku, confused.

"This morning, before you woke up" Luka replied without missing a beat.

Of course she had.

"Ah, also, before I forget, since this  _is_  a test of speed, it's only natural that there should be a time limit" said Luka failing to entirely hide her satisfied grin, "So if you can't get back here with the stone before midnight, you fail."

"MIDNIGHT!? But that's…"

"Less than twelve hours away?" Luka interrupted again in that infuriating way she had, "Yes, I do believe that's right. Best to get moving! Good luck!"

"But how the heck am I supposed to-" Miku began.

"GO!" shouted Luka, still smiling.

Miku, realizing that this was the best chance that she was going to get, took off at top speed.

Luka watched her figure grow smaller as she ran off in the direction of the forest entrance. If this didn't get this girl off her case, nothing would. Luka mentally scolded herself for allowing herself to be this underhanded. If she had just told the girl no in the first place, then this wouldn't even be happening.

Still, she supposed it didn't matter now, at any rate. There was no way, naturally talented or not, that a sixteen year-old girl was going to be able to run a sixty mile round trip within twelve hours. It was regrettable. Miku had real potential.

But Luka had chosen a life of seclusion for a reason.

A shadow passed over her face as she watched Miku's form get swallowed up by the treeline. That girl deserved someone better than her...

She sighed.

*********************************11:50 PM*************************************

Luka looked at the clock. Miku had been gone for almost twelve hours now. It was nearing the agreed time and Luka was steeling herself to give a harsh denial to Miku's notions of becoming her apprentice. She knew that she couldn't take her in, but that didn't stop her from feeling bad about what she was doing. She wasn't going to get any sleep that night.

She briefly wondered if what she was doing was really the right thing. She knew very well that she should have just refused Miku's initial proposal, but something had stopped her. Frankly, she couldn't imagine what she had been thinking. The more she dwelled on it, the worse she felt.

_No,_ she thought,  _what's done is done._ For now, she had better start thinking of a proper rejection. After all, it wasn't like Miku was going to be back to the house before morning; that would be ridiculous.

There was a knock at the door. Her blood ran cold.

Slowly, hesitantly, not daring to believe it, she walked over to the door, grasped the knob, and turned.

It wasn't possible. Her eyes were lying to her, she was sure of it. Against all odds, there she was. Miku stood in the doorway, framed by the moonlight. Her breathing was heavy, she was covered in sweat, her clothes were dirty and torn, and she looked to be nearly on the verge of collapse, but in her left hand, clasped in a white-knuckled death grip, was the very stone Luka had asked her to retrieve.

Miku slowly extended this hand, opened it, and let the rock clatter to the floor. Her eyes never once left those of the Vocaloid master.

"Done…" she said, and passed out on the spot.

Luka was dumbfounded. She hardly dared to look at the time but she didn't have to. She already knew.

The clock chimed midnight.

************************************Later*************************************

The girl slept soundly in the bedroom down the hall. After putting her in bed, Luka had gone back out to the kitchen and poured herself a strong drink from the bottle she kept at the back of the cabinet. Gods knew she needed it after what had happened earlier.

No matter how many times she went over it in her head, there was just no way she could make sense of it. At its shortest distance, the trip Miku had made was sixty miles long. But that was assuming that one moved in a straight line from the house to the forest entrance. Taking the path, the trip was closer to eighty miles. She must have gone straight there, but how? That route was nothing but dense forest and rough terrain. There was no way someone could simply plow their way through.

She gritted her teeth. Judging by the state that she had returned to the house in, Miku had found a way.

The fact stood that the girl had indeed completed the task Luka had given her. The stone wasn't fake, so the only explanation was that she had gone all the way there and back again.

Luka took a sip from her glass and grudgingly brought the more pressing issue to the forefront of her thoughts. Since Miku had indeed completed the task set to her, she was entitled to a second test.

Luka needed to put stop to this before it went any further.

_I suppose I could always just refuse._ She mused.  _I don't have any obligation to this girl_. But even as she thought this she knew it was a lie. She had taken on an obligation to this girl the instant she had saved her from those men.

" _A Oniigasen napermo…"_ she muttered under her breath. "Gods, Haku, why couldn't I have been like you for once?"

The taste of her drink soured in her mouth the instant the name passed her lips. This was hardly the time to be bringing up the past. She scowled at the glass in front of her. Alcohol when she needed to keep a clear head, what was she thinking?

Besides, if there was anyone that was acting like Haku it was the girl herself-

Luke winced. She'd just had to think it, hadn't she? The last thing she needed now was to start comparing Miku to  _her..._

It didn't matter. Reminiscent of old acquaintances or not, Miku was without question going to be asking to take on the next test. Too bad Luka hadn't thought she would even make it through the first one. She hadn't made a second "test" at all.

She had told Miku that she had a "Speed" test, a "Strength" test, and a "Mystery" test in store for her, but she hadn't really planned for the contingency that Miku made it this far. According to her own (however ill-thought out) words, the next test should be about strength, but what could she possibly…

_Oh… that might work..._

Luka chuckled to herself, while at the same time feeling a little guilty. She couldn't possibly ask the girl to do it, there's no way she could. The strongest man in the world wouldn't be up to the task. But desperate times called for desperate measures, so Luka got up out of her chair and started preparing.

She just hoped that she could use up enough electricity before Miku woke up.

*****************************The Next Morning*********************************

Miku awoke to house that was much different than the one she had collapsed in the previous evening. It was… louder. She could hear the television (cable, another thing that Luka shouldn't have had) and the stereo blaring. The washer and dryer were both on as well. Upon leaving her room, she discovered that not only was the house loud, it was also bright. In fact it seemed as if every light in the house was on. It was freezing too. Not surprising. She could hear the hum of the air conditioner running full blast.

As she entered the dining room, she spotted Luka sitting at her computer (Internet access too? What black magic was this!?).

It was more than a little unnerving. The woman sat hunched before the screen, everything electrical in the room either blaring, shining, or some combination of the two.

"So…" Miku ventured, taking a hesitant step into the room, "Trying to break the world record for the highest electric bill? Heh… hehe…"

The forced laugh died on her lips as Luka turned around to look at her. It took a considerable effort to prevent herself from taking a step backwards.

The woman looked terrible. Dark circles under her eyes indicated that she'd gotten either no sleep or very little. Still, a slightly manic light shone in her eyes as she gazed at Miku from across the room. Luka smiled, the overall effect being more creepy than reassuring.

"Oh, you're awake! This is part of your next test." Luka replied.

"It's part… of my next test?" asked Miku, understandably confused.

"Oh yes" Luka said, "Don't worry, you'll see soon enough."

Miku was very confused (and well on the way to freaked out) about what the woman's strange behavior could possibly have to do with a test of any sort. Still, she'd come this far.

"Yeah… I'll bet… Hey, could I like, take a shower and change my clothes before we start?" she said, "I mean, these aren't exactly cutting it anymore" she indicated her torn clothing.

Luka's expression was downright predatory.

"By all means. The restroom is up the stairs, first door on your left" said Luka sweetly. Miku caught the hint of mischievousness in her voice, "Use as much hot water as you need, take your time!"

_Yeah, that's right, use as much water as you want. Take a nice long shower_ she thought to herself, the corner of her mouth twitching with the hint of a smile. She'd be rid of this girl today, she was sure of it.

It was an hour later that Miku emerged from the bathroom wearing one of her spare sets of clothes. As she walked downstairs, Miku noticed that the appliances and fixtures that had previously been on throughout the house had been turned off. Luka was also nowhere to be seen. Upon entering the kitchen a sheet of paper on the table caught her eye.

**GO OUTSIDE**

Considering what she had gone through the previous day, Miku allowed herself a small shiver of nervousness at the prospect of a second such test. All of that running. So much of it. She hadn't a clue how long it had taken her. Hours? Days? It felt like the latter, though common sense urged the former.

And now it was time to prove herself again with whatever Luka was going to throw at her.

The mystery of exactly what the test entailed was solved almost immediately when Miku walked out the front door. She looked to her left and there was Luka standing with her arms folded looking at Miku with a bit of a smirk.

"Finally decided to show yourself, I see" she said, unable to keep herself from smiling.

The blue-haired teen was about to give her a snarky retort but faltered when she noticed what Luka was standing next to.

The pieces fell into place, and Miku wasn't sure she liked what she saw.

Directly next to Luka was the enormous stone wheel that powered the generator. It was at that moment that the words "test of strength" took on a whole new meaning.

"So… roulette?" she tried at a joke, but her smile faded almost immediately. "Yeah, didn't think so…"

"You catch on quick." Said Luka, still smiling "Let me explain. As you already know, this wheel weighs nearly three tons. Most definitely outside the abilities of a normal human being. However, as you also know, I can move it using vocal energy. 'Strength' for a Vocaloid isn't just strength in the physical sense. It's all the force their powers can lend them as well. As such, I want you to show me how much 'strength' you have by spinning this wheel."

"Can't I just buy a vowel instead?" Miku asked, her smile holding this time. Sure the thing was heavy, but it couldn't be that difficult to make just one rotation. "But seriously, is that it? I think I can-"

"You didn't let me finish!" Luka interrupted, waggling a finger with the ghost of a smile. "Just spinning the wheel isn't enough. The wheel is hooked up to the generator that provides power to my house. Spinning it enough will charge the generator. But there's a catch."

Miku sighed. Of course there was.

"You might be wondering why I had everything in the house running all night. The answer is that I was attempting to drain as much of the generator's reserve as possible. As things stand, I was only able to use half of what it has, but that should be more than enough."

Luka's expression hardened slightly. "Your job is to fill it up again."

It was hardly fair, asking her to accomplish something so obviously arranged against her. The Vocaloid master prepared herself for the cry of protest that she was sure the girl would raise.

It never came.

What Miku did instead scared Luka. No whining. No complaints. The girl merely glanced at the wheel, cracked her knuckles, and  _smiled_.

"That it?" She asked, fire in her eyes. "Sounds fun."

Luka did not know from what unnatural reserves this girl drew her willpower, but it was becoming very troublesome. She narrowed her eyes.

As Miku approached the wheel to begin, Luka spoke one more time.

"One more thing" she said, hoping to provoke at least a small bit of nervousness, "This test has a time limit too. Finish charging the generator by midnight, or you fail. Good luck."

_Arrogant little brat._  She couldn't help but think to herself. Even so, Luka found herself beginning to develop a grudging admiration of the girl's spirit.

Miku was ready this time. Running through a thick forest for hours on end was not her idea of a productive exercise but this… this was right up her alley. She was sure that she could do this. When it came to brute strength, no one topped her. She might not have been the most tactical person, but if something needed smashing then one needed to look no further than Miku Hatsune.

Still smiling, she walked up to the wheel and grabbed it, acquainting herself with the feel of the thick stone. She readied herself for the effort.

_1… 2… 3!_ She pushed as hard as she could.

The wheel didn't move an inch.

Well, she hadn't expected to get it on her first try, but there was still plenty of time.

******************************Five hours later**********************************

Things were not going as planned.

Miku had still been completely unsuccessful in moving the wheel even a little. The thing was enormously heavy, and she was rapidly running out of ideas.

Her initial confidence had since begun to fade and she was starting to become worried.

What was it that Luka had said to her before she started?

"' _Strength' for a Vocaloid isn't just strength in the physical sense. It's all the force their powers can lend them as well."_

That gave her an idea. Releasing her futile grip on the stone she retreated about ten feet away from the base of the wheel and took aim at one of the spokes.

For several seconds, nothing happened.  _Come on..._ She thought.  _I know I'm not_ that  _exhausted. Spark, damn you..._

Miku closed her eyes and concentrated. Then she felt it. A low, throbbing bassline filled her ears and slowly began to grow. The beats came in time with the pulse of her heart and as they built in intensity so too did her blood begin to flow faster.

A soft tingle started at her shoulder and spread down her arm, carrying with it a faint blue glow that soon enveloped her hand and started to expand.

The beat continued, each pulse causing the glow encasing her arm to shine brighter and brighter.

Miku began to sweat. It wasn't often that she gathered this much power at once. The tingling sensation was becoming more of a dull burning.

After a minute it was starting to hurt, and Miku took careful aim before releasing the pent-up bolt of energy.

The blast flew true and hit its mark in the center of one of the wheel's spokes. The whole structure shook, along with the house, as if it had been hit by a small earthquake.

"Oi! What was that?" she heard Luka exclaim from inside, "Are you trying to break it?"

Miku didn't hear her. Her strategy had worked, the wheel had moved. Only about a quarter turn, but it had moved. She smiled. Now she was getting somewhere.

An hour later, however, she ran into another problem. By repeating the same strategy over and over, Miku could manage almost half a turn per blast. She checked the generator's power meter and noted with dismay that she had only succeeded in generating a pathetic 3% of the maximum charge. Apparently the speed with which the wheel turned made more of a difference than she had anticipated.

That was unfortunate. She could get the wheel to start spinning, but she couldn't keep up the momentum. At the rate she was going she wouldn't finish by noon the next day, let alone midnight.

Letting out a sigh, Miku sat down on the ground. What would Gumi do in this situation? She was sure the goggle-headed genius would be able to come up with something. Physics surely held the solution somewhere.

Miku had always taken her best naps in physics.

The blue-haired teen had never really been one to pay attention in class, or really to be awake in class for that matter, but she somehow found her thoughts wandering back to the few times she had actually managed to strain her attention span enough to glean some useful information.

There were three laws of motion, or was it four? No, no, three, she was sure of it. She couldn't for the life of her remember the other two, but like a diamond in the rough one of them had managed to stick out:

_An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest._  She swore to herself to never admit to Gumi that school had actually helped her.

That was the key. She didn't need to keep charging up to maximum power every time she wanted to move the thing, that took too long and gave the wheel time to stop moving. A smaller blast should serve to keep the wheel's momentum from dwindling.

She gave the stone before her a defiant glare and once again began charging up a big wave of energy. When she could contain it no longer she released the blast directly at the wheel, but this time she didn't stop. Without waiting, she fired a much weaker, much faster blast from her opposite hand.

Miku knew that it had worked the instant the blast connected with the wheel. Just as the structure began to slow down the second blast connected and kept the thing spinning. It wasn't anywhere near the speed she'd seen Luka put into it before, but at this point she'd take what she could get.

It maintained a steady rotation, and Miku, now once again fired up, continued to fire small, quick blasts from either hand. The wheel started to turn faster and groaned as it picked up speed.

That groan echoed through the house. In the living room, a book was closed and placed on the couch next to a very worried pink-haired woman.

This… was not in the plan.  _There's no way… there's just no way…_  Luka told herself. Nonetheless, her adamant protestations aside, Luka could not stop herself from walking outside to check.

There the girl stood, a look of staunch determination on her face as she blasted away relentlessly at the spokes of the stone wheel.

And it was spinning. Oh Gods it was actually spinning.

Luka didn't know what to do. Taking a few shaky steps backwards she turned and bolted back into the house, immediately switching on everything electrical that she could think of. The stereo blared, the air conditioning ran full-blast, and every appliance and object with a plug made a cacophony of noise as they whirred, clicked, or whistled.

She cursed herself inwardly. If she'd just said no… but it didn't matter. She was past the point of just being able to back out.

The wheel gave another wall-shaking groan and Luka's eyes flew wide. She could kick herself later. She had to put a stop to this!

*********************************10:00 PM********************************

Luka was very worried. In the last four hours, despite her best efforts to the contrary, Miku had filled the generator up to 80%. Nonetheless, she was reasonably sure that, it having taken four hours for her to manage only 30% of the battery, Miku still wouldn't be able to make the remaining 20% within the two hours that were left. The vocaloid master was sure that Miku had to be exhausted by now.

Luka was right.

Miku huffed and puffed as she continued her assault on the wheel. It had been spinning pretty fast for the past four hours, and Miku hadn't let up at all. As such, she was becoming very fatigued from using so much energy. But she couldn't stop now. There were only two hours left and she had to fill the generator up to 100% no matter what.

But even she could sense that it was was a losing battle. She was nearly dead on her feet from four hours of constant exertion, and she wasn't going to be able to keep it up for much longer. She needed a solution, and fast.

It was time to try something stupid.

An idea came to her. By all accounts it wasn't a very good one, but she knew how she could do it.

She would need to be very close, close enough to touch it. That wasn't a reassuring prospect. She would also need to use more energy than she would normally be comfortable with. There would be a lot of recoil, and she wasn't sure she could even contain that much power in the first place. All in all she could end up hurting herself quite badly.

But she had to try. She approached the wheel slowly, maintaining her assault. She needed to get it spinning faster. It had to be able to support itself while she tried tried to gather enough power.

She doubled her pace. In her head, the bass pumped faster and faster, and each beat was a wave of energy leaving her hand.

More and more the wheel spun, the pace picking up to almost twice what it had been. Miku eyed it nervously. It seemed to be going much faster up close.

Then, all at once, she stopped. She instantly began building up energy, but not releasing it.

It started to hurt very quickly. Her hands began to shake with the effort of holding it back. Miku went far beyond what she had stored up before, her arms and shoulders beginning to burn, but still she kept going.

She cracked open one eye, glowing blue with energy, and saw that the wheel was only spinning about a fourth its original speed and she knew that she had to hurry.

_Almost there. Come on damn it!_ She screamed at herself.

And then she felt it.

She hit a plateau, and knew that she had reached her limit. She grit her teeth. This was going to hurt.

She took her hands, which were now glowing brightly with barely contained energy, and raised them palms out in front of her. She had to connect with the wheel for maximum effect. Fortunately, the wheel was now turning slowly enough that touching it wouldn't be a problem.

The problem would be what came after.

All at once she leapt forward and slammed her hands into one of the spokes, at the same time releasing all the energy she had stored up.

Inside the house a bright blue flash illuminated the living room, followed an instant later by a deafening boom. The entire house vibrated and shook, picture frames falling from the walls and plaster shaking loose from the ceiling.

Luka leapt for the door, tearing around the edge of the house.

The sight that greeted her eyes nearly made her heart stop.

The wheel was spinning so fast it was a blur. Miku lay on the ground nearly ten feet away, hands smoking.

The wood making up the side of the house was cracked and splintered near the base of the wheel, charred black in places from the force of the blast.

Miku groaned as she sat up. It felt like she had dislocated both of her shoulders. But as she looked up at the wheel, a grin spread across her face.

Luka wasn't smiling. With a strangled cry she rushed to the generator. The power level was rising rapidly.

_No no NO!_  She screamed in her head. This couldn't be happening!  _95… 96… 97... A eto itana! Stop, please!_

But stop it did not. Luka's lips stretched thin in a grimace.

"One hundred percent" she said out loud, her voice shaking, not able to believe it.

From the spot where Miku was laying on the ground, Luka heard it. Laughter. Pure, joyful laughter. Miku was laughing loud and proud, and Luka knew that she had every right to. But enough was enough. This charade had gone on long enough. One way or another it would end tomorrow morning. She knew what she was going to do for the last test, and she didn't care if it was unfair to the point of being ridiculous. She had allowed it to get to this point, so she was going to have to do something to put a stop to it, even if it meant stepping in herself…

"Miku." She said, her tone subdued, "Your final test will begin tomorrow morning at Ten o' clock. Don't be late."

With that, she walked back inside, up the stairs, and into her room, from which she did not emerge for the rest of the night.

***************************9:00 AM, the next day*****************************

Miku awoke much as she had done the past two days. She felt well rested and ready to take on the world.

Something about that felt off.

She had pushed herself to her physical limits for two days straight and yet somehow she was managing only the slightest bit of fatigue. Something told her that when she was finally done with all of this and the adrenaline wore off she was going to be more than a little bit sore.

She had other things to think about at the moment, though. For instance, the fact that if she passed today's test, she would actually be a student of the legendary assassin! She could hardly believe her good luck. When she had set out from her home, she had imagined the task to be nigh on impossible and yet here she was, albeit after a few bumps and bruises, having almost achieved her goal.

Being so close made her nervous. What could Luka think up for the third test? The first had been about speed, and the second about strength, but there was nothing to be said about the third. It could be anything and, considering the events of the previous two days, most likely would be.

To be honest, she was a little frightened of the possibilities. Luka had already given her two devilishly hard tests to complete and she had barely gotten through those. Surely this third test would be a task of absolutely epic proportions.

But what had her concerned the most was that she had seen neither hide nor hair of the woman since the previous evening. The vocaloid master had seemed rather cold when she had told her that her third test would begin at 10 AM sharp. Strange, Miku would have assumed that she would be happier for her.

Whatever the cause for Luka's less-than-eager demeanor, Miku was sure that it couldn't be too bad. In any case, she was going to give it her all, and come what may she would complete this test and become Luka's apprentice if it killed her.

Imbued with a new sense of confidence, and feeling that the only option was victory, Miku got dressed and went downstairs.

**********************************Vocal Vision**********************************

Luka stood in the field in front of the house, waiting for the door to open and Miku to emerge, brimming with confidence as she knew the girl would be. But today was different. It didn't matter how much confidence the girl had because Luka wasn't going to let her succeed.

This time would be different. This time she controlled all the variables because  _she_  was the test. Miku wasn't going to become her apprentice, and that was final.

Luka's eyes clouded over for a moment. She still felt guilty. If Haku could see her now...

As she stood there lost in her thoughts the front door opened and out stepped Miku, indeed looking like she was ready to take on the world.  _The world would be easier than me_ Luka assured herself.

"Hey! Not to be, you know, rude or anything, but can we start early?" asked Miku. Given her track record, she wanted as much time as possible should there be a time limit.

"Of course, if you're ready" Luka replied, not quite hiding a hint of coldness in her tone.

"Always" said Miku, stretching her arms and cracking her knuckles.

"Very well, then let me explain" said Luka, "Whereas the other two tests took you all day, you will have only four hours to complete this third test."

Miku deflated slightly at that.  _So much for getting a head start._

"This is because this test is much more straightforward. You see, I am the third test. Starting now, you have four hours to land a hit on me. This means any contact at all from grazing my arm to punching me in the face. I will not fight back or attack you, so feel free to try any strategy you wish. You may begin."

And with that, Luka sat down on the ground, took out a book, and began reading.

"You want me to just… like… hit you?" asked Miku, a little uncertain that she had heard correctly.

"Yes. Anything you wish to try is fair game so go ahead. It would behoove you to hurry up, you only have four hours."

Miku was dumbfounded. Luka wasn't even going to fight back? Was her final test seriously to just walk up and touch her? That couldn't be it. But if it got the woman to train her then she wasn't about to complain.

As such, Miku walked up to Luka hesitantly and reached out a hand. A split-second tingling in the air was all the warning she got as a powerful unseen force lifted her off of her feet and tossed her away like a ragdoll. She landed several feet away on her back, stunned.

"HEY! What the hell was that!?" yelled the blue-haired teen, quickly scrambling back to her feet, "I thought you weren't going to fight back!"

"Who's fighting back? I'm simply preventing you from hitting me." Luka replied, not once looking up from her book, "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

_No, I guess not_  Miku thought to herself. She grit her teeth. It was never the easy way, was it?

Ok then, if that was how she wanted to play it, fine. Miku could play it like that. She backed up a few paces and started a simple beat in her head. She could  _definitely_  play it like that. She charged up a small energy blast and threw it at Luka.

It never got close. Luka's own blast blocked it before it got within ten feet. Undeterred, Miku charged up again and threw two blasts at Luka. Again, there wasn't even a chance.

Miku was rapidly beginning to understand just how far in over her head she might be. She usually had two ways to solve challenges. Punch it, or, when that failed to work, punch it harder. She was reasonably sure that neither of those were going to work very well here.

It was infuriating. The woman obviously wasn't even trying. Miku's vocal vision enhanced sight saw every tiny fluctuation of Luka's energy as she knocked blast after blast out of the air. The amount of power she was exerting was almost non-existent. Miku needed something she couldn't just block off hand...

The entire time Luka hadn't looked away from her book for even a second. She had guessed it was going to be easy, but really?  _This_  easy? She had expected a bit more…

An enormous blast of energy came streaking through the air, headed directly for her. The power behind it was impressive, if only a fraction of hers. Without putting her book down she rolled to the side and out of the way of the blast. It sailed past her and impacted nearly twenty feet behind her, exploding in a shower of dirt and grass and leaving a small crater upon contact with the ground.

Before she had time to sit back up another equally powerful blast followed the first and she repeated the maneuver to avoid it.

_Well, I_ almost _can't read my book, I suppose that counts for something…_ thought Luka.

Miku was nothing if not persistent. A third, even stronger attack plowed past the vocaloid master, digging a deep furrow through the ground.

_My yard is going to look terrible after this_...

This continued for two hours. The entire time, Luka completely evaded every effort to hit her by ducking, dodging, rolling, deflecting and just generally not being where Miku's attacks were aimed at. To say that the girl was becoming frustrated would have been an understatement.

Miku huffed and puffed, drops of sweat trailing down her face. She was getting nowhere, and she knew it. At this rate she would run out of steam before she even got close to hitting Luka. She needed a new tactic, so she decided to change things up a bit.

Luka sensed another blast coming from the left and prepared to dodge but then realized that it wasn't heading for her. It sailed wide right and hit the ground instead. Then another one came soaring through the air and hit the ground on her right. All at once the air was thick with orbs of energy flying every which way.

Without warning one of the blasts landed directly in front of her, sending a small plume of dust exploding upward. A second attack immediately followed, this one sailing directly through the cloud of debris on a collision course with her face.

Luka's eyes went wide. With only a split second to react she threw herself to the side. The blast passed so close that she felt the whoosh of displaced air as it soared past.

_That was close…_ she thought, her heart pounding. She looked up at Miku.  _She's getting creative._

Luka calmly marked her spot in her book and put it away. That had been far too close for comfort. She couldn't afford to get distracted now.

Miku smiled. That had almost worked. She at least had the vocaloid master's attention now. Still, that only meant it would be even harder to hit her.

_Let's try it again_  she thought, charging up once more.

An additional hour later, Miku had achieved nothing but a field covered with craters and red, watery eyes from all the dust in the air which, annoyingly, didn't seem to affect Luka in the slightest.

"You had best hurry up. You only have an hour left" The woman reminded her.

Miku only growled in response. She hardly needed Luka to tell her that she was on the brink of failure. She knew all too well that her time was running short.

Biting her bottom lip, Miku momentarily stopped her assault. She needed to do something and fast.

Luka watched as Miku began to run in the opposite direction, toward the treeline. She was momentarily confused. What could she possibly be up to now? Her question was answered almost immediately by a loud cracking noise.

She ducked as a small tree flew past her head.  _Oh, that._  she thought as Miku pulverized the roots of another tree with a vicious salvo of energy blasts.

Luka was impressed by how far Miku was willing to go. But no matter how much she rearranged the landscape, it wasn't going to make a difference. Luka jumped from place to place as it started raining boulders and large pieces of earth.

Luka heard Miku let out a frustrated scream as she ran back towards her. Frontal assault this time, then. Miku ran straight up to Luka and started throwing punches and kicks as fast as she could, but not one of them connected. Luka weaved in and out, easily avoiding the onslaught. She backed up against a boulder and moved to the left just as a fist smashed straight through it.

Miku was getting desperate now. She couldn't touch her. Why couldn't she touch her? The woman was like a ghost!

Miku let out another shout of frustration. This wasn't working! Luka was simply too fast and too skilled for her to hit.

...It was time to try something stupid again.

Luka wondered if Miku would just keep it up until time ran out. She could imagine the look of heartbreak on the young girl's face when she realized that she had failed. The mental image made her feel downright evil.

It should never have gotten to this point. If she'd just bitten the bullet and refused the girl outright none of this would be happening. Now she was going to have to crush this girl's aspirations simply because she hadn't been brave enough to say no.

And then it happened. Distracted as she was by her guilty conscience Luka almost failed to notice the tree trunk laying across the ground behind her. She hopped over it at the last second without missing a beat.

Miku struck.

As soon as Luka's feet touched the ground on the other side of the log Miku charged up a sizeable blast in her right hand, went low, and blasted the tree straight up off the ground into Luka's face.

Luka's hand sliced clean through the trunk, shearing it in two. The instant she did, her vision filled with bright blue.

Miku came flying through the air before the two halves of the tree had time to hit the ground. With a cry of victory she thrust one arm forward, her hand blazing with energy.

The whole scene moved in slow motion to Luka's well-trained eye. The girl's hand flashed once before the energy contained within blasted out at point blank range.

Luka's head jerked to the side, the blast of blue passing millimeters from her eye. Her body, trained by years of fighting and self-preservation reflexively carried out the next step.

She smashed one foot into the ground, sending a wave of pure force blasting out in front of her. Instantly all of Miku's forward momentum stopped.

Miku only had a split second to register of look of confusion before Luka charged up energy in her right hand, stepped forward, and released a blast directly into Miku's chest.

It all happened in the blink of an eye, Luka acting purely on instinct. The blast was a small one, but a small blast from Luka was far different than a small blast from a sixteen year-old untrained Vocaloid.

Miku flew twenty feet before she hit the ground, then skidded and bounced as she ragdolled across the dirt for an additional fifteen before finally coming to a halt in a cloud of dust.

The girl didn't move.

Luka was by her side in an instant. "Oh no… no no no…" she said to herself as she hastily turned Miku over. " _A Oniigasen napermo_  please say I didn't do this…"

She was still breathing, that was good, but she was out cold. She had rapidly growing bruises all over the place from hitting the ground and bouncing. Her elbows and knees were bloody as well as a spot on her left cheek, and one of her arms was bent in a way it shouldn't have been. That was considerably less good. Luka scooped her up and bolted inside as fast as she could.

Half an hour later, Luka laid Miku's still unconscious but thankfully alive form into bed. She had cleaned and dressed her wounds, and her left arm was in a sling. It had only been dislocated, but she was going to have to take it easy for a few days.

She was relieved that the girl was going to be ok. She was relieved as well, though now incredibly guilty, that Miku had also failed to complete the test. She was not looking forward to breaking the news to her. After what she had just done, she wouldn't be surprised if the girl tried to attack her again out of principle.

With a heavy sigh Luka trudged to the bathroom to wash off the dust and exchange her now soiled clothing.

It was only after she had splashed some cold water on her face and looked in the mirror that she noticed it.

She could have sworn that she felt her heart skip a beat.

There, in her reflection, she saw something that shouldn't have been there, something that couldn't have been there, but no matter how many times she blinked or long she waited, it wasn't going away.

Along her cheek ran a long, thin cut.

She had been hit.

*******************************End of Chapter**********************************


	3. Plagued by the Past! Luka's Apology

I do not own Vocaloid or any of the properties thereof. Miku Hatsune and other characters are the property of their respective owners.

…But the story is totally mine.

*********************************Chapter 3*************************************

Luka gently traced the cut on her cheek. Her hand shook. There was no way. Her eyes were playing tricks on her, her guilty conscience rearing its ugly head. There was no possible way that she, the one everyone called the undefeatable 'Legendary Assassin' had actually been hit.

She squeezed her eyes shut. This was a dream. It had to be a dream. She would close her eyes and when she opened them there would be no cut. She would NOT have a cut on her face. It simply was not possible that there would be a cut on her face when she opened her eyes.  _Ok, here we go. 3… 2… 1…_ she opened her eyes and stared at her reflection.

The cut was still there.

She slowly sank to the floor and rested on her knees. Letting out a long breath. This was too much. What on earth had she gotten herself into? She could have said no, she  _should_  have said no, but she hadn't. She could have put a stop to this… this… whatever it was before it had even gotten started. Now she had gotten herself into a situation from which there was no escape, from which she could not extricate herself no matter what she did…

No matter what she did… unless…

She stood back up and stared at herself again. The answer was so painfully obvious. It was literally staring her in the face.

In her mind she briefly flashed back to herself healing Miku's injured nose. It would be a simple matter, healing herself. All it would take would be a bit of power and a little concentration, and she could pretend that it had never happened.

How would Miku know the difference? It wasn't like she would have noticed it in the first place. Luka could tell her that anything had happened while she was out. That's right, Luka could just calmly explain to her how she had accidentally overreacted when she had been attacked. She would apologize, of course. It  _had_  been her fault, after all. She wouldn't even mention the cut.

Then Miku, disheartened but still with her indomitable spirit, would set out to find a new teacher. Luka would see her off and wish her well and then she could go back to her quiet, peaceful life of seclusion…

And loneliness...

That's when it occurred to her. Was that really all that she was trying to achieve from this whole harebrained scheme? Was she so afraid of having another person near her? Had she hidden herself away for so long that the mere thought of having another person close to her for any length of time scared her  _that_  much?

When she thought about it like that she had to admit that it made her sound like a hermit. But then again, what else could she really claim at this point? After twelve years…

It couldn't be as bad as all that. She was just berating herself. She'd been more than this, once. Someone who lived for something, who fought for something… a hero.

She cringed inwardly _. No,_ she thought,  _I'm no hero, certainly._

She was afraid of having a person near her long enough to become her friend. If someone trusted her that meant that she could let them down. If she could let them down that meant that she could fail them, just like she had before.

Then again, maybe this time could be different. Who was to say that she was destined to let people down forever? Surely even she, the one least qualified to talk about trust, could make up for her mistakes, right? Maybe if she put her all into it and believed as hard as she could, then this time might be different.

She sighed.

It was the same tired argument she had subjected herself to countless times before, and she knew how it went.  _After_ that _, how could I ever…_ she thought to herself,  _How could I ever be worthy of the right to have someone trust me ever again?_   _I don't deserve that. Not after what I did to her…_

It wasn't that she needed the forgiveness of others. She had shunned that forgiveness for years now. It wouldn't make a difference, Luka could never forgive  _herself_  for what had happened all those years ago. She would never be able to reconcile her conscience over what she did to her best friend.

But at the same time she thought this, she couldn't help but recall the obvious similarities Miku shared with her. When she looked at Miku it was as if she was looking at a carbon copy of Haku. They talked the same, acted the same...

She smiled. They even sort of dressed alike.

Luka took a moment to think, and she thought hard. Perhaps this wasn't what she had made it out to be. Perhaps this could be the chance she had wished for and yet rejected for so many years. Maybe Miku, with her infinite similarities, was the key for Luka to redeem herself. Perhaps she could finally atone for her past sins. And maybe, just maybe, she could give Miku the chance that she had denied her friend.

_Wait!_  Thought Luka,  _at what point did I accept this? I was opposed to this. I_ am _opposed to this!_

_I am… aren't I?_

But she couldn't keep up the charade. Over the past few days, she had come to like Miku in spite of herself. It wasn't like she  _didn't_  want to take on an apprentice. She had wondered before what it would be like to pass on her considerable knowledge. She was just never able to get over her own guilt enough to justify it.

Miku was different. This girl had talent.  _Real_ talent. If she could do all of what she could do at her age, there was no telling what she would be able to do with proper training.

Luka would teach her, but she would also make sure that Miku didn't become like her. She wouldn't be a killer…

*********************************Vocal Vision*********************************

"Hey!"

Mmmm... Someone was talking…

"Hey you!"

What did they want? Miku was sleeping. That was so rude of them.

"Come on! Wake up coma girl!"

Miku grudgingly opened her eyes and found that… she was not where she expected. She was lying in Luka's spare bedroom, certainly, or at least on the bed, but the room itself was nowhere to be seen. Everywhere she looked it was simply… black. There was nothing. No furniture, no people, no light, just… nothing.

"Down here stupid!"

Miku looked down towards the foot of the bed to find the source of the voice that had woken her. What she saw didn't do much to clear up the situation. At the foot of the bed stood... herself? It at least sort of looked like her, a little bit.

This "Miku" (though she was loathe to call it that), was tiny, miniscule even. Standing full height the slightly creepy caricature of herself would have barely made it up to her knee. Her face lacked certain defining features as well. No nose, no pupils, a simple triangle for a mouth… it looked less like a person and more like someone had used her as the inspiration for their new modern art display.

"Ummm…. ok…." said Miku warily, not sure of how to handle this, "Who are you?"

"Can't you tell? I'm you!" replied the strange creature, "Miku Hachune at your service!"

"Uh, it's... Hatsune, not Hachune", Miku corrected her.

"I think I know my own name" said Hachune indignantly.

"Alright…" said Miku slowly, still trying to shake the cobwebs out of her head. "How are you me, exactly? And where are we?"

"We're in your head, duh" said Hachune, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And I mean I'm you. It's not that hard of a concept."

Alright then… Miku supposed this meant that she definitely wasn't awake. Could she be dead? Nah, that couldn't be it. She must be out of it for some reason. She'd heard of lucid dreaming before but if this was what it was going to be like…

The creepy version of herself stared up at her, blinking. Miku cringed back just slightly.

She didn't really know why she would be unconscious. Her memory was a bit of a blur. The last thing she clearly remembered was blasting that tree at Luka during her third test. Everything else was kind of hazy. She could remember pain, a lot of jarring and bumping, and she could vaguely recall someone carrying her. Now she was here, with an imp treating her like she had suffered partial brain death.

Not the weirdest day she could recall having, in any case.

"So… you're like my conscience?" asked Miku.

"Does this look like a movie?" Hachune replied.

"Well… I mean you sort of look like-"

"Ok, maybe that wasn't the best comparison" interrupted Hachune, "No, I'm not your conscience. I'm just a figment of your obviously damaged imagination. Then again, can't really blame you for being 'damaged.' You  _did_  get hit in the chest with the equivalent of a small amount of high-grade explosives. Also if  _you're_  damaged and I'm  _you_ … probably better not to toot my own horn anyways."

"Hit in the chest with…" and then it all came flooding back to her. Geez, she  _had_  flown a long way, hadn't she? Ouch, it hurt to remember it.

"There we go" said Hachune, "finally remembered, did you?

"Luka said she wasn't going to attack me. Why would she…"

"Isn't it obvious?" interrupted Hachune again, "She didn't want you to pass the test, dummy."

"But why wouldn't she…" and then suddenly Luka's less than supportive attitude made sense.

All this time she'd thought Luka had been testing her, impressed with her natural abilities. She'd been giving her challenging tests to see what Miku was capable of, seeing if she fit the bill to be taught by the great 'Legendary Assassin.'

Miku groaned. How oblivious was she? It was obvious that Luka was less than interested in the idea of teaching her. She hadn't been giving her challenging tests, she'd been giving her tests that were supposed to be  _impossible to complete._

"Of all the dirty…" began Miku.

"Figured it out did you?" said Hachune, "Good job, it only took you forever and a day."

Oh Miku was going to have a few choice words for Luka when she woke up. The verbal storm she would unleash would be the stuff of legends. Men would cry and women would faint. Somewhere, a sailor would hang his head in embarrassment.

"Now that you know, I think you know what to do next." Hachune said suggestively.

"Give her hell?" Miku replied.

"See? We are the same person." replied the imp, with a sly smile, "I guess that means it's time for you to wake up, you know, for real this time. Hold on, this is going to feel a bit strange. Waking up from being knocked out usually does…"

*********************************Vocal Vision*********************************

Miku slowly opened her eyes. As before, she was lying on the same extra bed, the only difference being that the rest of the room was present as well. The animals were on their shelves, the vanity and the dresser were in their rightful places, and the afternoon sunlight filtered in through the garishly pink-curtained window.

Miku attempted sitting up and as she did so realized that her left arm was in a sling. She tried to move it and a sharp pain shot through her shoulder. She resolved to keep it still for the time being.

A small noise drew her attention: soft breathing to her right. She turned and frowned.

At least Luka had made herself easy to find.

The instant she laid eyes on the pink-haired woman her anger flared. Vengeance was forthcoming. Luka would have a rude awakening.

"HEY! Wake up!" she shouted.

Luka jumped nearly a foot in the air and crashed off the chair when she landed. Rubbing her back, she looked up at Miku.

"That was hardly very nice" she said groggily.

"Good! That's what I was going for!" yelled Miku, revving up her engines. "Where do you get off, huh? Making me do those 'tests' for what? Your own amusement?"

Luka, for her part, seemed taken aback. She hadn't known exactly what to expect upon Miku waking up, but it certainly hadn't been this. She sputtered in response, attempting to quickly clear her head of the cobwebs of sleep.

"You were so full of yourself, sitting there watching me! Waiting for me to fail or something, right? Bad choice, jerk! You bit off more than you could chew when you messed with me! What happened? Got nervous when I finished the first two and decided to take me out? Just blast me into last week and say I failed? Screw you!"

Miku took a breath, preparing to unleash another barrage of insults, but before she could say another word Luka did something unexpected. She lunged forward, grasping Miku's hands between her own, and pressed her face into the bed sheets.

"I'm sorry!" she sobbed, her voice slightly muffled. "I don't know what I was thinking! You came to me and asked me to teach you. You were completely honest with your intentions and I took that honesty and threw it away. I'm so sorry!"

Miku grimaced, her anger suddenly derailed after Luka's outburst. This wasn't how this was supposed to go down. Luka was supposed to cross her arms and make a snide remark or two about how Miku was an idiot for thinking that she ever had a chance in the first place, not prostrate herself in front of her and beg forgiveness. Damn it she hated crying people. So awkward...

"You're… sorry?" she asked tentatively.

"More than you could ever know" Luka replied, "I never meant to hurt you. You came in so fast that I just reacted without thinking. If you had been seriously injured I don't know what I would have done with myself."

Came in too fast? Seriously? Was she kidding?  _I actually got that close?_  The last of her anger fizzled out to be replaced with a small measure of pride. Forget anything else, she had actually come within inches of landing a blow on one of the greatest Vocaloids who ever lived!

"I… really came that close?" she asked, amazed at her own ability.

"Not just close Miku…" said Luka. She then lifted her head up from the carpet and pointed to her cheek. There, plain as day was a thin red mark. "You got a lot better than close."

Miku's mind went numb.

"You mean I passed... passed the…" she stuttered. Everything she had thought was now rendered invalid. She had actually done it. Who cared if it meant getting herself knocked out and her arm dislocated? She had done it!

"Passed the test, yes" Luka answered for her, "But I have to tell you something Miku."

_Oh you have got to be kidding me_  thought Miku. After all of this Luka was still going to refuse to teach her, she just knew it.

"From the start, just like you said, I was never planning on taking you on as my apprentice" said Luka, avoiding Miku's eyes.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE…" started Miku, but she was interrupted.

"I wasn't planning on it, but I changed my mind. You made me change my mind, Miku" said Luka, "It's true. I never expected you to actually complete any of those tests, let alone all three. But you were right, I underestimated you. But even though I changed my mind, I still treated you terribly, and I think you deserve to know why."

Luka was still avoiding meeting her gaze. Whatever was bothering her, she must really feel terrible. Miku could see a tear forming in the corner of one of her eyes.  _Oh geez, here we go..._

"That's ok, you don't have to…" Miku started to say.

"Yes I do!" said Luka forcefully.

Miku shut her mouth. Obviously, Luka needed to get this off her chest.

After a several moments of silence, the pink-haired woman spoke again.

"It happened what feels like a lifetime ago and very far away from here. I had a friend. A good friend. The best a person could have. Her name was Haku. We were inseparable, her and I. We lived together, traveled together, we even trained under the same master. There was a time when we were considered to be the strongest Vocaloids alive, but she was always the one who loved the attention that being the strongest afforded her. She was the one who was always accepting challenges and signing autographs, and I was happy to let her have that. I was never the kind of person for all that popularity."

Luka was starting to cry. There were a few tears running down her face.

"And then one day something happened, something terrible. The kind of thing that can tear two people apart. After that… I snapped. It was a dark time in my life. I didn't want to face what had happened so I drowned myself in my fans. Everyone adored me, so I just used it as an excuse to escape. I didn't deserve it. It should have been her getting that praise, just like always, but she let me have it. We made a promise when we were kids that we would share whatever we got, and she kept it. Even when she was in the spotlight she was always happy to shine some of it on me, and she never let it go to her head."

The troubled look on Luka's face intensified, as if what she had to say next was even more difficult.

"I… broke that promise. The fame and fortune went to my head and I shoved her aside and embraced it. I had so much, anything I could ever want, but at the same time I lost something much more precious. One day we had an argument. I said several things that I shouldn't have, and that I could never take back. I said that I didn't need her and told her to leave and never come back… so she did. I never saw her again."

Luka was now openly weeping, still clutching Miku's hands like a lifeline. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and continued.

"After that I soon realized that the fame wasn't worth it if I didn't have anyone to share it with. Even though so many people idolized me none of them truly  _knew_  me. I had legions of fans and not a single friend. I looked for her, but I never found her. To this day I don't know where she is or what she's doing. Eventually I stopped looking and just gave up. I didn't know what to do, so I left. I wandered for a long time across most of the world and finally ended up here where I could keep away from all of the things I'd done. That was twelve years ago. I'm no 'Legendary Assassin' now, just someone with too many regrets."

Miku sat and listened as Luka bared her soul to her, unsure of how to react. She  _really_  hated crying people. Awkwardly, Miku wriggled one of her hands out of Luka's vice grip and placed it on the woman's shoulder. Luka finally looked up, locking eyes with her.

"And then you came along" she said, and as she did, Miku saw something new in her eyes, something almost happy. "Believe it or not, you were the first person I've had any meaningful contact with in twelve years. I don't know what possessed me to talk to you, but…" Luka faltered for a moment before continuing.

"You have no idea how like her you are. When I look at you, it's like I'm looking at a younger version of Haku. Everything about you reminds me of her. I was drawn to you. That's probably why I didn't just tell you no at the beginning. Even so… I was afraid to be near you. I know it sounds silly, but I felt like if I took you on as my apprentice, I would be replacing her. And what if I ended up letting you down and hurting you like I hurt her? I…" But before she could continue, Miku spoke.

"Why are you still talking?" Miku said. Luka frowned angrily. "I'm trying to tell you that-"

Miku interrupted her. "You sound like a broken record! Look, it's super easy. If you don't want to let me down then just say that you'll teach me! That's all I wanted from the start anyways!"

Luka didn't know what to say. It was like Haku had stepped straight out of the pages of her memory.

"Miku… Thank you…" said Luka, bowing her head once more.

"Yeah sure, no big deal" she replied. All this crying and apologizing was really starting to get to her. She was an action-oriented kind of person. These situations messed with her head. She hastily changed the subject. "Anyways, I'm pretty hungry, is there anything to eat in this house?"

"I suppose I could try to find something" said Luka with a smile. "It's the least I could do after what happened. You must be starving. You've been unconscious for hours."

Had it really been that long? On top of the three days before she realized that she hadn't spoken to Gumi since before she'd met Luka. The girl was probably going out of her mind by now. She'd have to remember to give her a call later.

"That long, huh?" said Miku, "Could you help me up? I really need to pee."

Luka laughed and helped Miku to her feet. Her legs were a little shaky but steadied quickly.

However, once Miku was out of the room, Luka's gaze fell. She'd tried so hard to tell Miku everything, but it seemed that there were things she still couldn't bring herself to face. There was more, so much more, but at least it was a start. For now, she had to start thinking about how she was going to go about teaching someone when she had never done it before.

She only hoped that she would be able to do it right. Now that she was committed, she was going to see this through to the end. Come hell or high water, she was in it for the long haul.

An hour later one wouldn't be able to tell that anything had ever been amiss in the first place as Miku and Luka spoke and laughed with one another over dinner. They looked like old friends, and to Luka, it felt as much.

*******************************Elsewhere**************************************

Three shadowy figures stood talking. One could tell by the tone of their voices that the discussion they were having was a serious one.

"You realize, I hope, that after we do this there will be no going back, yes?" said one of the figures. A black cloak concealed most of the individual's appearance, but a few strands of long yellow hair were visible under a hood.

"I've known it from the start. All of us have spent years preparing for this day. Backing down now isn't an option" replied another hooded figure.

With that said she turned to the third of the group.

"Ritsu, it's time" the second person said.

"I thought you'd never ask" said the one called Ritsu. The voice was quiet, wispy, like an autumn breeze, but not nearly as peaceful. It carried a sinister intent.

With that, the third hooded figure walked across the room and entered what appeared to be a large glass pod.

The yellow-haired one moved over to a large console with a brightly glowing screen and pressed a few buttons. The console lit up and the sound of a large machine could be heard coming from another room. The pod began to glow faintly.

"By the way," asked Ritsu, "Why exactly are we wearing these?" He lifted one sleeve of his cloak, shaking it around.

The second figure stared at him impassively. "You know why."

"Yeah, but… I mean come on. We're inside our own base of operations! Maybe if it was one of those shady meetings we had to have years ago but here?"

The second figure sighed heavily. "You have no appreciation for theatrics, you know that? Go ahead and take it off if you want, I'm leaving mine on."

"Don't mind if I do."

"But you still have to call me by my title!" The voice was almost pouting.

"Don't mind if I do, Milady" said Ritsu sarcastically.

Without fanfare the cloak was tossed aside. Beneath was an androgynous face framed by bright orange hair. The eyes, much like the voice, held traces of malice.

The second figure came to stand in front of the pod as the machine whirred to life.

"Remember the mission. Once you've taken him, you must be sure to act so as not to arouse suspicion. No one must know of what's happening."

"For the thousandth time I've got it, just trust me" said Ritsu, clearly annoyed at the second figure's attitude.

With that, Ritsu closed his eyes. When they opened again, they were blank. All trace of emotion had gone from them. He gazed straight ahead with a dull stare, as if the person that had inhabited his body only moments before had somehow left and only the shell remained.

The yellow-haired one looked up from the console.

"The link has been successfully established, Milady."

"Excellent" came the voice of the second figure. A small smile spread beneath the shadow of her hood. "So it begins."

*********************************End of Chapter*********************************


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